Fatah delegation head spoiled Algerian reconciliation agreement, claims Islamic Jihad

Senior Islamic Jihad leader Ahmad Al-Mudallal said on Wednesday that the head of the Fatah delegation to the Palestinian dialogue in Algeria spoiled the reconciliation agreement, Al-Watan Voice has reported.

“Despite opposing some issues,” Al-Mudallal explained, “we were near to reaching an agreement in Algeria, but Azzam Al-Ahmad blew up the whole agreement.”

According to the Islamic Jihad official, Al-Ahmad conditioned any agreement on the acceptance of a united Palestinian government based on the International Quartet’s conditions, including recognition of the occupation state of Israel. All of the Palestinian factions rejected this condition, said Al-Mudallal, but the Fatah representative insisted that the head of the Palestinian Authority, PLO and Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, had asked him to propose it.

“We call for Islamic Jihad to put an end to such media controversy which harms the reconciliation,” responded Fatah spokesperson Hussein Hamayel. Fatah, he added, will not comment on this issue.

READ: Algeria hosts Palestinian reconciliation meetings 

Another spokesman of the movement, Monther Al-Hayek, explained Fatah’s position: “We want to form a Palestinian government to address the international community based on the decisions of the international community in order not to be blockaded like what happened with the previous governments.”

The Palestinian factions signed the Algerian Declaration last Thursday. The deal stipulated that the factions should stop incitement against each other through the mass media.

However, Palestinian political analyst Hani Al-Masri, who is very close to the Fatah leadership, confirmed that Abbas asked Al-Ahmad to make acceptance of reconciliation conditional upon agreeing to international terms because the PA president wanted to spoil the agreement. Fatah, it should be noted, has always refused to accept Hamas as a partner in government.