Fatah, Palestinian terror groups to meet in Syria amid reconciliation push

A Fatah delegation is set to visit Damascus tomorrow to conduct negotiations with a number of Palestinian factions, according to the official Palestinian Authority WAFA news agency.

Fatah Secretary Jibril Rajoub tells Voice of Palestine Radio that the delegation will visit the Syrian capital to meet with members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Both organizations are designated as terror groups under Israeli law.

Rajoub says that the negotiations will aim to “ripen the conditions for calling for elections.”

Rajoub’s remarks come against the backdrop of what Palestinian senior officials say are reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas. The two movements have been at odds since 2007, when the Hamas terror group expelled Abbas’ Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip after a bloody struggle for control of the coastal enclave.

Fatah and Hamas both say a recent series of negotiations led to an agreement to hold elections within six months. Several such promises have fizzled before, however.

A previous deadline for a decree calling for elections by PA President Mahmoud Abbas was delayed until an unknown date. In his interview, Rajoub declined to specify when the next meeting of Palestinian faction heads — at which Abbas would have issued such a decree — will take place.

— Aaron Boxerman