The ongoing conflict between Mohammed Dahlan, the former head of Fatah, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has soured relations between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Egypt. A senior Palestinian source in the Gaza Strip told Al-Monitor that as long as the crisis between the two is not resolved, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is unwilling to deal with Abbas. 

In November 2015, Abbas met with Sisi in Cairo. At the end of the meeting, an official announcement was made that they had discussed “the humanitarian and security situation in the occupied territories and the growing crisis as a result of the security violation at the religious sites [in Jerusalem] and the ongoing settlement construction.” But the reason for Abbas' invitation to Cairo was something else entirely. The Palestinian president discovered, to his surprise, that Sisi had prepared a plan, a sort of “road map,” intended to “clean up” the Palestinian political arena. The plan demands, among other things, reconciliation between Abbas and Dahlan, who is now considered a close ally of Sisi. 

The plan Abbas was presented with includes three interconnected demands:

• A firm demand to open the ranks of the Fatah movement. Abbas was told explicitly that Sisi wants his disagreements with Dahlan to be resolved immediately. Dahlan was removed from the ranks of Fatah in 2011, and since then, he has established a close relationship with Sisi and the heads of the ruling party in the country.


• A demand to resolve the conflict between Fatah and Hamas. Egypt demands that Abbas forms a Palestinian unity government with the participation of Hamas. According to the Palestinian source, Abbas was told by the Egyptians that they do not want Hamas' exclusive rule in the Gaza Strip to continue. Egypt’s considerations are clear; they understand that Hamas will not disappear from the Palestinian arena and that its rule of Gaza will not be overthrown by military or civic means. The only way to neutralize Hamas’ rule is to create blocks that will erode the movement’s dominance in Gaza and hand it over to the PA. It is clear to Egypt that there will be no reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah without the reconciliation between Abbas and Dahlan. Surprisingly, Dahlan, who was once hated by Hamas leaders and whose life had been in danger on the eve of the Hamas revolution in Gaza in June 2007, succeeded in repairing his relationship with the movement and creating a bridge between it and the Egyptians.


• A demand to carry out a real reform within the Palestine Liberation Organization, including Palestinian National Council elections, to revitalize it and change its composition. 

The task of advancing the Egyptian plan was put to Khaled Fawzy, the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, who holds the Palestinian portfolio in Egypt. Fawzy met with Abbas when he visited Cairo and explained to him how Sisi sees the regional map, the Palestinian arena and its relationship with Egypt. Fawzy also presented Abbas with a tentative timetable.