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Hamas: Abbas is ‘running after mirage’ of French initiative

May 16, 2016 at 11:18 am

Hamas yesterday downplayed the importance of the French peace initiative which aims to revive negotiations between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli occupation, Quds Press reported.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said that Israel has already rejected the French initiative but “PA President Mahmoud Abbas is sticking to it like one who is running after a mirage.”

“The proposed partner [for peace] is the occupation, which continues its efforts to Judaise Jerusalem, expand settlements and proposing bids to annex Area C,” he explained.

The French initiative is “unclear” and consists of general ideas to return to direct negotiations. However, he said, experience has proven that this choice leads to “failure”.

Abbas is however going down this route in order to gain legitimacy at an international level as the president after “he lost his internal legitimacy”.

“There is no doubt that the international legitimacy is importance, but it does not have any value if it is not based on a real popular legitimacy.”