‘Saudi Arabia summoned Abbas in response to Hamas trip to Iran’

Saudi Arabia has “summoned” the Palestinian Authority and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas to Riyadh in response to a visit by Hamas officials to Tehran, former Egyptian ambassador Abdullah Al-Ash’al told Quds Press on Tuesday.

“The Saudis will order Abbas to be inflexible on two issues,” explained the political analyst. “He must not respond to Hamas calls to end the security cooperation with the [Israeli] occupation, and not lift the sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip.” This, he added, will push Hamas to withdraw from the reconciliation deal.

According to the Chief Editor of Egypt’s Al-Araby newspaper, Abbas has good relations with the Saudi leadership, and it is expected that he could have passed a joint Egyptian and Jordanian message to the authorities in Riyadh. Abdullah Al-Sinnawi said that the message could be asking the Saudis to “de-escalate the internal situation and de-escalate the tension with Lebanon to help maintain the stability of the region and keep the Saudi role in the region active.” He noted that the Lebanese and Israeli media released information which supports his opinion.

Al-Ash’al pointed out that Saudi Arabia is not currently involved in the Israel-Palestine “deal of the century” to the same degree that it is involved in the internal “clashes” among its princes and businessmen. Al-Sinnawi concurred on this point.

Last month, a senior Hamas delegation visited Iran and stressed that the Palestinian movement maintains good relations with the country which is blamed by most of the Arabs for causing instability in the region.

Read: Anything Hamas requests will be given, says Iranian FM