In a meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in Doha, Monday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pressed the Qatari emir not to sign a normalization deal with Israel absent any progress on the Palestinian issue, according to a report in Saudi Arabia's Elaph news site.
Abbas told the Qatari emir that US President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration was set to declare renewed support for a two-state solution, senior Qatari officials told the Saudi site. Abbas further argued signing a normalization deal with Israel that had the support of outgoing US President Donald Trump would harm the incoming administration's planned efforts to pressure Israel to agree to negotiations for a peace deal on the basis of the two-state solution.
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Abbas also ordered senior Fatah party official Jibril Rajoub, who had spent the last few days in Iraq, to travel to Oman to pressure the Qatari heir to the throne not to sign the normalization deal with Israel as long as the Palestinian issue was at a dead end, according to the report.
Senior officials in Oman told Elaph that Rajoub's last-minute trip to the emirate to meet with close associates of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq took senior Omani officials by surprise. According to the report, Rajoub, at Abbas' orders, asked his hosts not to sign a normalization deal with Israel, arguing that such agreements harm the Palestinians' national interests.
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