The Jerusalem official’s trip reportedly comes as part of preparations for the International Peace Conference that is going to be held in early 2021.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has met with Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on Monday.
During the meeting, the two leaders discussed bilateral relations, as well as recent major developments related to Palestine and the ongoing illegal occupation.
Abbas’s visit, the first since November 2019, comes following previous stops in Amman and Cairo, reportedly as part of his preparations for the International Peace Conference that is going to be held in early 2021.
The Palestinian official’s visited to the Gulf state also comes amid the ongoing wave of normalisation deals between Israel and a number of Arab regimes, with Morocco being the latest to to establish diplomatic ties with the Zionist state.
Commenting on Rabat’s latest normalisation deal, senior Palestinian official and Abbas’s adviser Nabil Shaath said that the move came after the country was subjected to “pressure and incentives by the US”, which would “only serve its own goals”.
Read also: Palestinian official: normalisation is part of a ‘manipulative self-serving agenda’
Qatar has previously affirmed its position vis-a-vis the Palestinian cause, which is contrary to the UAE and Bahrain, who have normalised with the occupying state of Israel.
In a November statement, Sheikh Tamim said that peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved as long as the illegal occupation of Palestinian land continues and its people are denied the ability to exercise their legitimate rights to self determination.
“Concerning our region, we reaffirm our steadfast position regarding the just Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of our Palestinian brothers, including the establishment of their independent state on the basis of 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just solution to the refugees issue, under international legitimacy resolutions,” he said.
Sheikh Tamim added that normalisation with the illegal occupation without a “just solution to the problem of Palestine is a mere illusion”.
More recently, Doha reiterated its stance that it has no intention to normalise anytime soon following reports that an imminent resolution to the GCC crisis may be tied to such a move.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stated last week that “the Gulf crisis has nothing to do with the Abraham Accords or any normalisation with Israel”.
In recent months there have been pushes by Qatar and more prominently its ally Turkey to restart inter-Palestinian reconciliation talks, a move that analysts see is imperitive if there is going to be any resistance to the ongoing margianalisation of Palestinian rights in the international arena.
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