Palestinian rivals Abbas, Haniyeh shake hands in Algeria
Algeria's president managed to bring together Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for the first time in 6 years, but divisions between the two rival factions they represent may be too deep at this point.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune brought together in the Algerian capital Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh for the first time since October 2016.
Most Palestinians felt that the meeting was held out of mere political courtesy to Algeria, which celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence on July 6.
The meeting, which witnessed a handshake between Abbas and Haniyeh in front of the cameras for the first time in years, was not followed by any meeting between the leaders of Fatah and Hamas.
In January, Algeria had called on the rival Palestinian factions to discuss internal reconciliation as a prelude to a conference scheduled to precede the Arab summit in November. However, these efforts failed to come to fruition in light of the continuing differences between the Palestinian factions.
