BICOM

Prominent Arab state leaders are said to be pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) President to mend his differences with his exiled political rival.

Several Israeli reports say that there is a unified effort by Arab leaders to see Mohammed Dahlan permitted to return to President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction. In the Times of Israel, Avi Issacharoff says that Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Jordan’s King Abdullah, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan are all involved in the effort.

The intervention of leaders from the wider Arab world is thought by many to have been prompted by the upcoming Palestinian municipal elections in October. The main electoral rival to the Fatah faction is Hamas, which is strongly opposed by those pushing for an Abbas-Dahlan reconciliation. It is reported that candidates linked to Dahlan have so far registered to run with Fatah, in what is considered to be a positive indication of easing tensions between the two leaders.

Dahlan is a prominent Palestinian leader and is considered by some to be a serious opponent to Abbas and a prime candidate to succeed the current PA President. He headed the Palestinian security forces in Gaza until Hamas forcibly seized power there in 2007. Dahlan had also been part of the Palestinian negotiating team at the Camp David talks in 2000. Accused of corruption and other misdemeanours, Dahlan was expelled by Abbas from the Fatah faction and effectively exiled to Dubai in 2011.

However, Dahlan has continued to speak out against Abbas since then. Dahlan told Sky News Arabic last year that he would build a united front against Abbas after he failed to pass a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution mandating an Israeli West Bank withdrawal. Dahlan has also funded projects in Palestinian areas, viewed by Abbas’s supporters as an attempt to rival him