Hamas asks Russia to push PA toward unity government for post-war Gaza

Palestinian senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk, front, attends the funeral of Saleh Arouri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, January 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Palestinian senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk, front, attends the funeral of Saleh Arouri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, January 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Palestinian terror group Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official tells the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow.

“We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war,” Marzouk is quoted as saying by RIA.

Marzouk says that Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations about a unity government, RIA reported.

Abbas is head of the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the  West Bank.

The PA, controlled by Abbas’ Fatah political faction, has long had a strained relationship with Hamas, which ousted Fatah from Gaza in a bloody coup in 2007.

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