Who's to blame for failed Palestinian reconciliation?
The recent accusations by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blaming Hamas for orchestrating the attack against Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah seem to have terminated hopes of a Palestinian reconciliation in the near term.
The Palestinian reconciliation between Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Hamas has officially failed after Abbas accused the Islamist movement, in a speech at a Palestinian leadership gathering last month, of perpetrating the attack that targeted the motorcade of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on March 13. The attack left seven security guards wounded, but Hamdallah escaped unharmed.
In the speech, Abbas addressed the reconciliation and said there had been “zero” progress in reconciliation due to Hamas, and he vowed to impose a fresh set of sanctions and end all aid payments to the Gaza Strip.
