Leader of Fatah Movement: Egypt has supported the Palestinian cause for 16 years

CAIRO-9 February 2020: A leader of the Palestinian Fatah Movement, Ayman Al-Raqb, said that the Egyptian state has been exerting great efforts for 16 years to solve the Palestinian issue.

Al-Raqb added, in a telephone interview, that the discussions on the Palestinian issue currently taking place Cairo call for a great deal of optimism, adding: "We need now to restore security to the Palestinian people by holding elections in the coming period."

The leader of the Palestinian movement explained that there is currently a division within Fatah, between two streams, the first represented by Muhammad Dahlan, and the other represented by Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen. The Palestinians have suffered from Hamas movement throughout the previous periods, so the people of Gaza will tend to choose their candidates from Fatah movement in the coming elections.

On Feb. 8, 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, arrived in Cairo to discuss and agree on a series of elections in 2021, for the first time in 15 years. They thanked Egypt at the end of their round of talks. Egypt also heads urgent Arab League peace talks, as the country called for a convention at the level of foreign minister on the same day, where the Arab foreign ministers a 12-item decision regarding the Palestinian cause.

The resolution stipulates that “Arab countries support the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, atop of which are self-determination, the right of return, and the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state, on the borders of June 4, 1967 and with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

In his speech at the meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed Egypt’s supporting role in achieving the inter-Palestine reconciliation and in reviving negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israeli, saying “The Palestinian cause is still and will remain our central issue … The region’s stability will not be achieved without a permanent and comprehensive peace based on a just settlement that fulfills the aspirations and hopes of the Palestinian people.”

“Some [countries] think that the Arab world, amid the current circumstances, had become distracted from the cause. They think that the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, is not prioritized by the Arab countries’ anymore. But this belief is wrong. The Palestinian issue was and will remain the essence of the Arab conscience, no matter how stagnant and disrupted the negotiation process is and despite the unilateral Israeli practices and settlement projects in the West Bank.”