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Thursday, May 05, 2011

Did Abbas and Meshal sign the unity agreement? (UPDATE)

From Al-Quds al Arabi (Arabic), discussing the Hamas/Fatah unification ceremony in Cairo:

Notably, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not sign the agreement, as expected, and neither did Mr. Khaled Meshaal of the Islamic Resistance Movement 'Hamas'...

It may be possible that I am interpreting the autotranslation incorrectly, but I don't think so. The writer goes on to mention the other disagreements Abbas and Meshal had as far as protocol, seating, speaking and so forth.

I know that representatives from Hamas and Fatah signed the agreement a few days ago.

I cannot find any photos or videos showing Abbas or Hamas leaders actually signing anything, at a ceremony that was specifically meant to celebrate exactly that!

There's a story here.

UPDATE: ChallahHuAkbar tweeted George Hale from Ma'an this question after my blog entry (so did NGO Monitor), and he answered:
According to this report, no. It says assistants signed on behalf of both officials.

So why didn't Abbas sign....and why is no one asking him about this?