Sisi meets Abbas after Palestinian reconciliation

CAIRO – 18 September 2017: President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi received in his residence in New York on Monday the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas following the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas.

Sisi arrived in New York on Sunday for the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. Sisi is set to address the gathering with comments on Middle East issues and counter-terrorism efforts, his spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement.

Sisi and Abbas discussed during the meeting the Palestinian issue in all of its aspects, in addition to the current conditions the Middle East is going through, as well as the dangerous escalation in settlements in East Jerusalem and the rest of the Palestinian territories.

Earlier on Monday, a National Accord government has been formed and announced it will take on its duties in the Gaza strip within 24 hours after Hamas had dissolved its administrative committee, in light of achieving Egypt-brokered inter-Palestine reconciliation.

The move was met by international praise as part of efforts of inter-Palestine reconciliation. The movement affirmed that it would comply with the Social Reconciliation Accord signed with Fatah in 2011.

Fatah has been at odds with Hamas since 2007, when the terror group took control of Gaza in a bloody coup. Despite repeated attempts to reach a reconciliation agreement, the two sides have been unable to patch up their differences.