• Published 15:41 13.03.10
  • Latest update 16:49 13.03.10

Abbas blames Iran for thwarting Palestinian reconciliation

PA president: Tehran didn't want Hamas to sign deal, Palestinians must be freed from Iranian tutelage.

By DPA Tags: Iran Hamas Israel news Fatah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, winding up a visit to Tunisia, on Saturday blamed Iran for blocking reconciliation between his Fatah organization and rival Islamist faction Hamas.

Tehran's leadership did not want Hamas to sign the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation plan, Abbas charged. After Hamas had initially agreed to the plan, it was now citing a number of objections for not signing it.

Abbas said the Palestinians should be freed from Iranian tutelage.

Previous reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas had broken up without agreement, with disputes, among other issues, over a date for new elections. Egypt's plan foresees elections for June.

Hamas, in bloody fighting with Fatah in June 2007, gained control of the Gaza Strip, in effect setting up two seats of power for the Palestinians with the Hamas in Gaza and the Abbas' Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

But the international community only recognizes the Palestinian Authority as representing all of the Palestinian areas.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Photo by: (Reuters)
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  • 22. 0 0
    no 17
    • Hebrew Prophet
    • 15.03.10
    • 15:43

    Sunni Islam was around six hundred years before Shiite Islam,yet they both connive to slaughter each other on a daily basis in Muslim lands,how sickening?

  • 21. 0 0
    #6, pretty sure they left that to Stubb
    • Aaron
    • 14.03.10
    • 04:05

    look nerdy and carry a big economic stick. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1156085.html

  • 20. 0 0
    "Mandelarab"??
    • Rory
    • 14.03.10
    • 02:52

    You have no right to besmirch the name of Mandela with your racist rant against the Jews. Before you accuse Hebrews, take a close look at what your culture has given to the world: death, destruction, hopelessness, and the promise of 72 virgins. Shame on you for invoking Mandela.

  • 19. 0 0
    The real story...
    • The Prophet
    • 14.03.10
    • 02:41

    ...is that Hamas is tearing itself apart. The Hamas leaders in Gaza (Zahar, Haniyeh) are devout Sunnis tied to the Ikwan (Muslim Brotherhood) based in Egypt. The Hamas leaders in Damascus (Meshal in particular), on the other hand, have hitched their wagon to Shi'ite Iran - Persian heretics. The Gazan leaders are fed up to the back teeth with Meshal, who lives comfortably at a safe distance in Syria and enjoys posturing to the media as a hardliner while Gazans bleed and suffer. Al-Mabhouh was in the Meshal camp, a Hamas link to Iran. The precise info about his whereabouts came from the Gazans. The split between them and the Damascus leaders is now red raw and in the open. This was the real story of the Dubai killing which was pushed into the background by the clownish antics of the Dubai police chief.

  • 18. 0 0
    In unrelated news....
    • J Thomas
    • 14.03.10
    • 02:04

    In unrelated news, a central leader of the US Democratic party has revealed that the GOP is controlled by rich conservatives. A central leader of the GOP has revealed that the Democrats are completely under the control of George Soros. The US FBI has revealed that the Italian Mafia is unduly influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. A prominent Mafia leader has announced that the FBI is corrupted by drug money and anyway spends most of its time collecting blackmail material on US Congressmen and other influential americans. The President of US Steel announced that the union is under the control of international communists, while the union chief says the US Steel president is owned by international bankers. And several people prominent in the liberal US media said that the US media cannot be trusted because it is too liberal.

  • 17. 0 0
    This is Quid pro quo forlast week's US verbal assaullt on Israel
    • Jew for Jews
    • 14.03.10
    • 01:52

    There is no substance to this or anything else proclaimed by Abbas, the lying murderer, holocaust denier and representative of the Hitlerite Mufti of Jerusalems. In fact the arab street has nothing to loose by siding with Iranian Mullahs against their own governments. Its not only a Shia-Suni thing. this so called dispute can be settled simply by silencing the Sunni mullahs, or vice versus.

  • 16. 0 0
    Seeing The Light
    • Brazen
    • 14.03.10
    • 00:39

    is how Peace is made. Iran is abbas, assad and nasrrallah's death sentence.

  • 15. 0 0
    Abbas the Kawal
    • No iran lover
    • 14.03.10
    • 00:18

    This Sunni manyak should know that if he allied himself with Iran no Jewsih settler will dare now go to East Jerusalem. This dirty manyak should be hanged with Dahlan and Rajoub and other traitors.

  • 14. 0 0
    where has the decency got lost?
    • NV NV NV NV
    • 13.03.10
    • 23:53

    i think the talkbackers love violence, and need more blood. try these stupid views in your home. and let the many decent people of israel and palestine live in peace and dignity.

  • 13. 0 0
    michelle jerusalem
    • jojo
    • 13.03.10
    • 23:27

    Aman to that michelle

  • 12. 0 0
    True but Abbas is also working for the mullah of Iran
    • Realist
    • 13.03.10
    • 22:54

    What Abbas says is true but he himself is also working for the mullah of Iran when he refuses to negotiate with the Prime Minister of Israel. Abbas is also a Holocaust denier like Ahmadinejad.

  • 11. 0 0
    Tell us something that we didn't know
    • Ralph
    • 13.03.10
    • 21:49

    So now Abbas "reveals" that Iranians pull the strings of Hamas? Next I suppose he will "reveal" the fact that Iran's finger is in the rear end of the Hizbula puppets, and that Iran's bribes determine the policy of Syria.

  • 10. 0 0
    # michelle
    • Oz Person
    • 13.03.10
    • 21:17

    the only ones needed to be assassinated are those who wish to assassinate others.

  • 9. 0 0
    Strange. There's NOTHING in quotes.
    • CJ
    • 13.03.10
    • 21:05

    Not one word actually QUOTED

  • 8. 0 0
    Why would anyone still take Abbas seriously?
    • Voice of Reason
    • 13.03.10
    • 20:21

    He has no credibility with the palestinian people, nor with israel, nor with Iran, nor with Russia, nor with the EU. Only the idiots in the Obama administration (Biden, Hilary, etc) still think that Abbas is relevant.

  • 7. 0 0
    Abbas continues to fail his people
    • John
    • 13.03.10
    • 19:22

    He cant even leverage this moment of truth and awareness

  • 6. 0 0
    Jump Ashton ,use EU's leverage against Hamas and Iran..
    • Absolute Sweden
    • 13.03.10
    • 17:10

    Or is it the "leverage" directed against Israel and Israel only ?

  • 5. 0 0
    iran is also behind failure of peace talks AND war w/lebanon!
    • michelle
    • 13.03.10
    • 16:35

    the success of the REVOLUTION in iran is critical to the future of the middle east and the world. enough of letting that fascist dictator control the entire region. someone needs to assassinate ahmadenijad and quick!

  • 4. 0 0
    Hamas radical and Shiite?
    • Manuel
    • 13.03.10
    • 16:29

    Hamas definitly is radical but certainly not Shiite! It's a fundamentalist Sunni Group!

  • 3. 0 0
    Where did this come from thats damn odd
    • Eli
    • 13.03.10
    • 16:26

    Perhaps there is hope after all? If Abbas can see he is getting plated by Iran It is proof that the fat cheat can find a way of getting his head out of his ass I wonder if there was US pressure on this statement

  • 2. 0 0
    Abbas owed a lot to the US
    • Mandelarab
    • 13.03.10
    • 16:11

    The little man did not really have a choice to say such a thing. After all, the last few days were a clear proof of the US' willingness into giving credibility to the PA's demands towards the Israeli occupiers. This was simply the following : "You give a little, you get a little". Israel ought to see how paying off this could be... But we all know that the word "Giving" does not seem to exist in Hebrew...

  • 1. 0 0
    Abbas should find another excuse
    • Truth
    • 13.03.10
    • 16:01

    for his own TOTAL INCOMPETENCE. What has he achieved so far from his hand-shakings with Israelis ?