Abbas’s aides were said to be enraged over the reports concerning the Sisi-Dahlan meeting.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday briefed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi on renewed Palestinian efforts to seek a UN Security Council resolution that establishes a timeline for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.
Abbas, who arrived in Cairo on Tuesday following a visit to Turkey, also briefed Sisi on Israeli measures in Jerusalem, especially “violations” against Islamic and Christian holy sites, according to the PLO’s Wafa news agency.
The agency quoted Abbas as claiming that daily “incursions” by Jews to the Temple Mount were threatening turning the political conflict into a religious one.
The two men also discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip in wake of increased tensions between Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas.
Abbas, the agency said, “thanked Egypt for its ongoing efforts to support the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip.”
Abbas’s meeting with Sisi followed reports that the Egyptian president had met last week with ousted Fatah leader Mohamed Dahlan. Dahlan, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, is one of Abbas’s strongest opponents.
Abbas’s aides were said to be enraged over the reports concerning the Sisi-Dahlan meeting.
Nimer Hammad, Abbas’s political adviser, said that the Egyptians told him that the reports were untrue.