Abbas to make first trip abroad since outbreak of COVID-19

Abbas’s visit comes in the framework of preparations for engaging with a new US administration under President Joe Biden.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry walks with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki as he arrives for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 20, 2020. (photo credit: FLASH90)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry walks with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki as he arrives for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 20, 2020.
(photo credit: FLASH90)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled on Sunday to hold his first trip abroad since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic by visiting Jordan and Egypt.
In Amman, the 85-year-old Abbas is expected to hold talks with King Abdullah before heading to Cairo, where he is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi on Monday.
PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said that Abbas was expected to brief Abdullah and Sisi on the latest developments in the Palestinian arena “in the context of ongoing coordination and consultation” the Palestinian leadership and the Jordanians and Egyptians.
Palestinian sources said that Abbas’s visit comes in the framework of preparations for engaging with a new US administration under President Joe Biden.
On Friday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said that the Palestinians were holding indirect contacts with the Biden team. He said that the Palestinians were ready to renew contacts with the Washington after Biden enters office.
The Palestinians have been boycotting the US administration since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.
Abbas is hoping to gain Arab backing for his initiative to convene an international conference for peace in the Middle East after Biden assumes office, the sources said.
Abbas’s visit to Jordan and Egypt also aims to ease tensions between the PA and some Arab countries in the aftermath of the normalization agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Abdullah and Sisi, who maintain good relations with the Gulf states, have implicitly and explicitly supported the normalization accords.
“President Abbas wants to mend fences with the Arab countries, particularly those that signed peace treaties with Israel,” a PLO official told The Jerusalem Post.
Noting that Abbas has decided to return the Palestinian ambassadors to the UAE and Bahrain after withdrawing them in protest of the normalization agreements, the official said that the PA president would ask Abdullah and Sisi to help end the crisis between the PA leadership and the two Gulf states.
“The Palestinian leadership realizes that it made a big mistake when it accused the rulers of the UAE and Bahrain of betraying the Palestinians and stabbing them in the back,” the official explained.
Another PA official in Ramallah told the Post that Abbas will also brief the Jordanian monarch and the Egyptian president on the outcome of efforts to end the dispute between his ruling Fatah faction and Hamas.
Hamas officials said last week that the efforts to end the conflict with Fatah failed because of Abbas’s decision to restore Palestinian relations with Israel, including security coordination with the IDF in the West Bank.


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