Palestinian Reconciliation on Hold, PA Wants Quartet "Clarifications" (Reconciliation‪)‬

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' bid for full UN membership has enlarged the gap between his mainstream Fatah movement and its rival, Islamic Hamas, over the implementation of a reconciliation deal signed between the two earlier this year, the London-based daily ASHARQ AL AWSAT reported Oct. 2. Also, Hamas, an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, prefers to wait and see how the mother group will do in upcoming general elections in the North African country, the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily added in a Ramallah-datelined story, quoting unidentified "informed Palestinian sources." As soon as Abbas, in his capacity as head of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, announced that he submitted the request to the United Nations for full membership, Hamas, which usurped Gaza's rule in a 2007 militant battle, immediately opposed it, saying Abbas' move "was a unilateral and absurd step that won't benefit the Palestinian cause." On Sept. 23, when Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly and announced that he submitted the request for UN membership for a Palestinian state, he devoted part of the speech about the need for the immediate achievement of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.