Hamas to join ‘emergency’ meeting against Trump’s plan

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah will join forces on Wednesday, in a rare meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah against US President Donald Trump’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan, officials said.

“We invited the Hamas movement to attend the emergency meeting of the leadership and they will take part in the meeting,” senior Palestinian official Azzam al-Ahmed said. Hamas official Nasser al-Din-al-Shaar confirmed he would attend the meeting, which all Palestinian factions were invited to.

“The meeting will discuss the position that must be taken (against) Trump’s plan,” Shaar said. The Islamist rulers of Gaza have been at odds with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement for years, with Hamas representatives rarely taking part in meetings of the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership.

Trump was due to release his plan, years in the works, at the White House later on Tuesday together with his close ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- but Palestinians, who accuse Trump of pro-Israel bias, were not taking part in the Washington event.

Trump, however, claimed not only that the plan might “have a chance,” but said it could benefit the Palestinians, who he predicted might come around to the idea.

“It’s very good for them, in fact it’s overly good for them,” the US president told reporters on Monday. “We think we will have ultimately the support of the Palestinians.”

“We call on the international community to not be partners in this (plan) because it contravenes international law,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said on Monday. But his administration has already recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state captured from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and stopped referring to the West Bank as “occupied” territory.