JEDDAH, 10 September 2007 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will arrive here tomorrow and tell Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah that he still backs the Saudi-sponsored power sharing deal with Hamas provided its cedes control of Gaza, the Palestinian ambassador in Riyadh said yesterday.
Abbas will tell the king that the “Makkah Accord, which he personally sponsored is still a valid way out of the tense situation in the Palestinian territories, on condition that the situation in Gaza returns to what it was” before Hamas seized power in mid-June, Jamal Al-Shobaki said.
The ambassador made this statement after the Saudi Press Agency announced that the Palestinian president would be meeting with the king in Jeddah. “During the meeting the two leaders will discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations in various fields, developments in Palestine, and other issues of mutual concern,” SPA said.
The Makkah agreement between Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas reached under Saudi auspices last February led to a short-lived unity government. Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government after the Islamist party forcibly took control of Gaza. He then appointed a new government based in the West Bank.
Shobaki said Abbas would also brief Saudi leaders on preparations for an international Middle East conference called by US President George W. Bush for later this year.
In Gaza, a Fatah-called strike to protest Hamas rule of the Strip widened divisions between Palestinians. The one-day general strike put Gaza shopkeepers in the precarious position of having to choose sides.
The business owners, who have abided by strike calls in the past to protest against Israeli occupation, found themselves weighing the personal cost of shutting down and angering Hamas or staying open and risking retaliation by Fatah.
“Gaza is like a ship with two captains,” said one shop owner who declined to give his name. “Each captain is ordering passengers to his side of the boat. In the end, the ship will sink.”
Fatah ordered the strike after violence on Friday in which Hamas security men, wielding clubs and firing in the air, broke up outdoor prayer meetings Fatah organized in defiance of a ban on such gatherings.
Standing outside an ice cream shop that remained open, a young man lit a petrol bomb and hurled it inside, setting the business ablaze.
On Gaza’s main street, about half of the shops were closed.
— Hisham Abu Taha contributed to this report from Gaza City
