clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

PLO has invited Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Central Council meeting, claims Erekat

January 4, 2018 at 12:33 pm

The Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Saeb Erekat, has claimed that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have both been invited to attend the organisation’s Central Council meeting, Anadolu reported on Wednesday. “We hope that they respond,” Erekat told Al-Jazeera TV.

“The agenda will start with facing the US decision [about Jerusalem] and will end with erasing the reasons for internal division as Palestinians,” explained Erekat. He pointed out that there is “full” Arab and international support for this.

The Central Council is a permanent committee of the Palestinian National Council, which is the umbrella of the PLO. Its last meeting was held in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah in 2015, when the council decided to cut all kinds of contacts with Israel, but this did not take place on the ground.

Hamas has denied that it has been invited. Spokesman Salah Al-Bardaweel said on Thursday morning that the movement “has not yet received any official invitation.” The Hamas political bureau member called for the Central Council to cancel the Oslo Peace Accords because they have not brought peace to the Palestinians. If the movement is invited, he added, it will discuss the issue.

Read: PLO Central Council will discuss cancellation of Oslo, says Shaath