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Russia has invited Palestinian groups to Moscow, which could bring together Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and other terrorist groups. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said over the weekend that Russia invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow at some point in late February, the latest Russian move to increase its influence in a post-October 7 world. Moscow hosted a Hamas delegation already in October, as Hamas sought to do outreach to Moscow. -snip- According to Russian state media TASS, Moscow invited up to 14 Palestinian groups to attend, including those belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as...

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says the PA is still seeking unity with Hamas terror group and may hold talks with the group in Moscow on February 26. “Russia has invited all Palestinian factions who will be meeting on the 26 of this month in Moscow. We will see if Hamas is ready to come to the ground with us,” he says at the Munich Security Conference. “We are ready to engage. If Hamas is not then that’s a different story. We need Palestinian unity,” he says. He adds that Hamas needs to meet certain prerequisites. Asked about making...

Israel must end its evictions of Palestinian families in east Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi when the two met in Ramallah. Their meeting took place as tensions have flared in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where at least 28 Palestinian families face eviction. Abbas spoke with Pelosi on Thursday about "finally putting an end to Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem," according to the Palestine News Agency Wafa. He similar called for Israel to respect the "status quo" on Jerusalem's Temple Mount and for it to put an...

Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas during their recent meeting that he wants to be “the new Rabin”, Channel 12 News reported on Friday. According to the report, PA cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh relayed details of the meeting between Gantz and Abbas in a recent meeting with Arab Israeli activists and journalists. Gantz told Abbas, according to Shtayyeh, “I believe in the two-state solution and believe is the appropriate solution. I want to be the new Rabin, but this government has limitations.” Abbas, for his part, told Gantz that “if the current [Israeli] government does...

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday that voting US President Donald Trump out of office is critical for the Palestinians. “The election is very important. God help us, the EU, and the whole world if there are four more years of Trump,” he said. Shtayyeh spoke out against Trump’s peace plan, presented earlier this year. “Trump has wasted four years of everyone’s time,” he said. “The ultimate deal was not delivered. [Trump’s plan] was rejected by the Palestinians, the Arabs and Europe… The US is just too biased.” Shtayyeh called for...

/ Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, in a tweet, drew a distinction between Emiratis and their leaders. “The Emirati people are our people. The UAE flag is an Arab flag. Our rejection of normalization does not affect our respect toward our people in the #UAE,” he wrote.

Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh is calling on members of the US Congress to sound their voices in order to save the two-state solution. In a meeting in Ramallah on Thursday with Congressman Eliot Engel, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Shtayyeh stressed the importance of congressional pressure on the Trump administration to lift the sanctions on the PA and put an end to what he called the “economic war” against the PA. […] Israel, he claimed, has violated all the agreements it signed, and in particular the Paris Agreement (the economic agreement), when it offset the...