Russia has invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on February 26, the Palestinian Authority's prime minister said on Sunday.
“Russia invited all Palestinian factions to meet on the 26th of this month in Moscow. We will see if Hamas is ready to come with us,” Mohammad Shtayyeh said at the Munich Security Conference.
“We are ready to get involved. If Hamas is not there, then the story is different. We need Palestinian unity,” he said, adding that to be part of that unity Hamas needed to meet certain prerequisites.
Created as part of the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian Authority has seen its legitimacy constantly undermined by construction by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The militant Islamic group Hamas ruled the Gaza Strip for 17 years, after expelling security services loyal to the Palestinian Authority from the enclave. Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel sparked the war against the group in Gaza.
Western states and some Arab states have made it clear that they want to see a revitalized Palestinian Authority — which President Mahmoud Abbas has led since 2005 — take command of Gaza once the conflict ends, unifying its administration with the West Bank.
“Palestine is ready. We have the institutions, the capabilities, but our serious problem is that we are under occupation,” said Shtayyeh. “We are under Israeli occupation and we need it to end.”
(Reporting by John Irish; additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo)
Source: CNN Brasil
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