The participants of the intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow decided to annul the final statement due to the lack of consensus on a number of its points, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Moatassim Hamada, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2019) The participants of the intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow decided to annul the final statement due to the lack of consensus on a number of its points, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Moatassim Hamada, told Sputnik.
The third intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow with the participation of Hamas movement started on Monday and will last through Wednesday. The negotiating sides were received by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday. The summit is being held at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian academy of Sciences in Moscow. Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told Sputnik on Tuesday that the sides managed to adopt a joint statement.
"At night, it turned out that the text of the statement contains a number of points that were opposed by members of Islamic Jihad, Hamas. East Jerusalem is mentioned in these paragraphs. For example, they advocate establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem without specifying the 1967 borders," Hamada said.
According to Hamada, some other points of the statement have caused disagreements.
"Some participants were against the 'right of return' [return of Jews to Israel], which means the hidden recognition of Israel ... We agreed to cancel the statement ... and hold a press conference to discuss the points on which it was possible to agree, and on points of disagreements," the politician said.
In 2005, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the Palestinian National Authority a governing body for both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank took control of both enclaves. But the unity within the Palestinian Authority did not last long and a conflict erupted between Fatah and Hamas in 2006, resulting in the split of the authority and Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip. The West Bank is still controlled by Fatah.
Russia is one of mediators in both the Israeli conflict and the intra-Palestinian talks. US President Donald Trump's administration has meanwhile also been working on its peace plan for Israeli-Palestinian settlement for months. The Palestinians later rejected Washington's involvement in the conflict settlement after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy there in May 2018. The United States did this in spite of the fact that the United Nations has recommended diplomatic missions not be established in the city until its legal status is settled.
