ALGIERS (AFP/Xinhua) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met publicly for the first time in over five years, on the sidelines of Algerian independence anniversary celebrations.
Algeria’s state broadcaster reported late Tuesday that representatives of the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic resistance movement Hamas movement also attended the meeting, which it called “historic”.
The pair, who officially last met face-to-face in Doha in October 2016, were brought together in a meeting with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, whose country marked the 60th anniversary of independence from France.
A photo released by the Palestinian Authority showed Tebboune sitting between Abbas and Haniyeh in a meeting room with Algeria’s green-and-white national flag in the background.
Thanks to the Algerian president, who “invited the two leaders on purpose,” the meeting between Abbas and Haniyeh was made possible, said Gaza-based political analyst Husam al-Dajjani.
“Tebboune is expected to persuade both Abbas and Haniyeh to resume their dialogue and end around 15 years of internal Palestinian division and achieve internal reconciliation,” he said.
Arab mediators have so far been unable to end the internal division between Abbas’ Fatah Party and Hamas. The two rivals had reached a series of understandings and agreements sponsored by Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia which had never been implemented.
Abbas’ secular Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that rules the occupied West Bank, has been at loggerheads with Hamas since elections in 2007, when the resistance movement took control of Gaza.
Tebboune and Abbas also signed a document to name a street “Algeria” in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
As well as Abbas and Haniyeh, Tebboune on Tuesday hosted several foreign dignitaries, who watched a huge military parade to mark independence in 1962 when Algeria broke free from 132 years of French occupation.