EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell upon arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday:‘’We will discuss how to proceed, how to support the Palestinians on this issue. We have been pushing them a lot for holding elections and unhappily the fact that Israel is not allowing them to do elections in East Jerusalem has made them decide not to hold this election.
There is widespread belief among the Palestinians and the international community that the issue of voting for the Palestinians in East Jerusalem was only a pretext used by Abbas to avoid elections which would endanger his legitimacy already eroded by internal divisions within Fatah and the probable win of Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling in the Gaza Strip.
JD: I understand there’s about a 90% chance they will not happen. What’s the latest?
IM: It’s quite ironic what’s happening. The international community was pressuring the Palestinian Authority to be a democracy. There has not been elections since 2006 when Abbas was elected to a 5 year term. So it’s a little bite absurd and they’re giving them literally millions of dollars every year to promote democracy and the Palestinian Authority has turned into a dictatorship.
The international community pressured the Palestinian Authority to have elections. Now what happened is because the Palestinian Authority is so corrupt Hamas turned out to be more popular in the public opinion polls recently. Not only were they more popular but Fatah which is the ruling party and supposedly the moderate party Fatah has split into three different groups so now the international community who is pressuring the Palestinian Authority to have elections is actually hoping that they cancel the
Friday, 5 February, 2021 - 07:45
Russia Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov arrives for a meeting on Syria at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva June 5, 2013. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Gaza - Asharq Al-Awsat
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov met with Hamas political bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouq in Moscow to discuss upcoming elections in Palestine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Hamas delegation briefed its Russian counterpart on the latest political developments concerning the Palestinian issue, especially the Palestinian legislative, presidential, and National Council elections.
Bogdanov welcomed the visit of the Hamas officials and confirmed the Russian unwavering position towards the Palestinian cause.