The Islamist movement Hamas and Fatah, its secular rival, agreed on Thursday, September 24, on the organization "within six months" of the first Palestinian elections in fifteen years, in a context marked by a desire "for union "against the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries.

"We have agreed to hold first legislative elections, then the election of the President of the Palestinian Authority and finally the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during the next six months, "Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah official, told AFP.

Hamas executive Saleh al-Arouri confirmed to AFP this agreement reached after meetings in Turkey between Fatah, head of the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas, in power. in the Gaza Strip.

Two movements with knives drawn

"This time we have reached a real consensus (...), the divisions have harmed our national cause and we are working to put an end to it," Saleh al-Arouri said in a telephone interview from Istanbul.

The last Palestinian presidential election dates back to 2005. At the time, Yasser Arafat's successor at the head of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, now 84, won the ballot with 62% support and has since led the election. 'Palestinian Authority.

A year later, Hamas won the legislative elections, but these results had soured relations between the two camps, to the point of leading to armed clashes and the takeover in 2007 of the Gaza Strip by the Islamist movement.

Until recently, the two movements remained at loggerheads.

According to a rare opinion poll in recent months by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Polling Research (PCPSR), Hamas leader Ishmael Haniyeh would be ahead of Mahmoud Abbas in the event of an election.

Mahmoud Abbas, who has repeatedly pledged elections over the past decade, did not say Thursday whether he would run for his own succession.

Standardization

The PLO, a signatory to the Oslo peace accords with Israel, brings together many Palestinian factions, including Fatah, but not Hamas.

However, Thursday's joint agreement, which provides for PLO leadership elections, suggests however that Hamas could join this grouping.

As proof of a reconciliation in sight between the two rival movements, leaders of the two groups are due to give joint interviews Thursday evening on the channels Palestine TV, based in the West Bank, and Al-Aqsa, in the Gaza Strip, told 'AFP corroborating sources.

The announcement comes as Palestinian factions recently began a dialogue in the hope of joining forces to counter the normalization of relations between Israel and Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates.

The Palestinians had called the normalization agreements a "stab in the back", and criticized some Arab countries as Israel and the United States tried to convince other countries in the region to follow in the footsteps of the Emirates and Bahrain.

Until recently, the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was seen as a sine qua non for the normalization of relations between Arab countries and Israel, which has occupied in particular the West Bank and East Jerusalem for more than 50 years.

Turkey and Iran, two non-Arab Muslim countries, have been the most bitter opponents of the normalization agreements, called "betrayal".

Tehran maintains relations with armed Islamist groups in Gaza but less with the Palestinian Authority.

Turkey, "aspires to lead the defense of the Palestinian cause", believing that the Arab countries and the West do not defend it enough, had recently told AFP Gallia Lindenstrauss, of the National Institute for Security Research from Tel Aviv.

With AFP

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