Hamas chief in Lebanon to meet Palestinian factions

BEIRUT — Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Beirut on Wednesday for a week-long visit that will see him meet with Palestinian factions over growing cooperation between their enemy Israel and Arab states.

Haniyeh's visit, his first to Lebanon in 27 years, comes after an August 13 announcement that Israel had normalised ties with the United Arab Emirates.

On Thursday, he will meet representatives of other Palestinian factions in rare talks on how to respond to such accords and to a Middle East peace plan announced by Washington this year, said the Islamist movement's representative in Lebanon, Ali Baraka.

The meeting at the Palestinian embassy in Beirut will coincide with talks in Ramallah between Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and representatives of Palestinian factions there.

Thursday's joint discussions in Ramallah and Beirut aim to develop "a unified Palestinian strategy to confront normalisation schemes ... and to reject plans to annex the West Bank as well as [Trump's] 'deal of the century'", Baraka told AFP.

The Palestinian embassy in Lebanon said that a part of the meeting was organised in Lebanon because most participating officials were residing either in Beirut, Syria or Ramallah.

Baraka justified the choice of Lebanon by saying the country is a supporter of the Palestinian cause and has a large population of Palestinian refugees who would be adversely affected by US President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East.

The last time most heads of Palestinian factions held joint talks was in 2013 in Cairo.

Under the US plan unveiled this year, Israel would retain control of the disputed city of Jerusalem as its "undivided capital", and annex settlements and other areas in the occupied West Bank.