Former PA official: ‘Israel seeks building confidence with Abbas’

Member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) Nabil Amr has stated in a video circulating on social media that Israel has been seeking to build confidence with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Al Wattan Voice reported on Friday.

In the video, Amr, who was a senior PA official, claimed that several Israeli officials congratulated Abbas on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, but the core purpose of the call was “rebuilding confidence”.

Commenting on the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which took place between 11 and 21 May, Amr explained: “At the beginning, people were happy with the results, but through time, the situation turned upside-down.”

Citing the reasons behind people’s discontentment, he said: “Nothing happened regarding the reconciliation. The reconstruction issue is moving slowly, and the hope of Palestinians is diminishing due to Palestinian-Palestinian differences – this is the most dangerous issue.”

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Meanwhile, he asserted that there is a coup against the political solution for the Palestinian cause proposed by the international community

“At the beginning, we were speaking about a massive political programme which would have ended, after a transitional period, with a state,” he expressed. “There has been international patronage for that programme… but the coup here is turning from this programme to only economic solutions.”

He stressed: “The most dangerous issue of this coup is that the Americans and the Europeans have tasked the mission to save the PA to Israel.”

Amr affirmed that the Palestinians are waiting for the PA leadership, the political level and the Palestinian factions to present a “persuasive programme” to resolve the ongoing crises, stressing: “This could not happen without free elections.”