Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Sunday for the leaders of the Palestinian factions attending the secretaries-general meeting in Cairo to unite against "Israeli aggression," Anadolu has reported.
"We must ensure our national unity to fight against the occupation, which targets our rights and sanctities as well as our existence," said Abbas. He described the Israeli occupation attacks on the Palestinians as a "barbaric aggression."
He also called the Hamas takeover of government responsibilities in Gaza following its resounding victory in the 2006 Palestinian election the "coup d'état in 2007" and insisted that "the division that befell us afterwards must end."
Abbas stressed that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is the "sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," and advised all parties not to be hesitant about the PLO and its national political agenda.
For the PA president, one of the basic principles that will ensure the unity of Palestine is to "adhere to international legitimacy and peaceful popular resistance," and that only peaceful resistance is successful.
He accused Israel of preventing Palestinian elections from taking place and called on the international community, including the US and the European Union, to put pressure on Israel regarding this matter.
The agenda for the Palestinian factions in Cairo included the current developments in Palestine, the restoration of national unity, and ways to end divisions in the shadow of the great difficulties facing the Palestinian cause.
READ: Hamas calls for Palestinian unity at time of division in occupation state
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
Spotted an error on this page? Let us know
