Abbas trying to block Israel-Hamas prisoner deal, says report
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to stop a prisoner exchange agreement between the occupation state of ‘Israel’ and Hamas, Egyptian sources claimed on Saturday.
The sources, quoted by the Qatari-affiliated media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, accused Abbas of “playing a destructive role” in obstructing the completion of the prisoner deal brokered by Egypt.
According to the unnamed sources, Abbas is seeking to hinder Egypt’s mediation efforts because he opposes the inclusion in the list of Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who Hamas wants released from an Israeli prison.
Abbas believes that Hamas’s decision to include Barghouti and other prominent prisoners “aims primarily to embarrass him and to show him as being negligent on the prisoners’ issue and efforts to release them,” the sources added.
“Abbas’s fears have increased because he realizes that Barghouti is a strong rival.”
The Egyptian sources claimed that Abbas “pressured more than one party, including Egypt, to reach agreement on some internal arrangements and matters related to him remaining in his position at the head of the Palestinian Authority for an indefinite period” before launching negotiations to reach a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.
