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President Abbas is Reluctant to Visit Gaza

الرئيس عباس متردد في زيارة قطاع غزة رغم الجهود العربية والإقليمية الضاغطة عليه في هذا الخصوص [1]

According to local Palestinian sources close to the “president” Mahmoud Abbas, several Arab leaders are trying to persuade Abbas to go to Cairo to meet with Khaled Meshaal and announce the start of the implementation of the “Doha agreement” and a new government coalition with Hamas as a response to the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The sources stated that there are heavy Arab and regional pressures on Mahmoud Abbas to go immediately to the Gaza Strip to show his support and solidarity with the Palestinian people, but Abbas has not lost one word about this. Later it was released that Abbas sent his foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki to Egypt to meet with Mishal and the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that that an Arab ministerial delegation headed by Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, will visit the Gaza Strip.

According to the ministry: “according to the instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Riyad Al-Maliki went to Cairo to work in the field there to prepare to go to with a delegation of Arab foreign ministers chaired by the Secretary General of the League of Arab States to the Gaza Strip. The purpose of the visit is to follow on the ground what is happening in Gaza under the brutal Israeli aggression and to stand with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It is not known if the visit of Dr. Riyad Al-Maliki is meant to coordinate a possible visit of Mahmoud Abbas to Gaza. The coming days will bring clarity to this political and diplomatic process. In any case it should be clear that President Abbas can not go ahead without the approval of US and the EU.