Algerian diplomacy fails to mediate between Palestinian factions

Algeria has failed in its endeavor to bring Palestinian factions together around the mediation table which it pinned hope for in its quest to host the Arab league summit.

Algeria’s quest is more about whitewashing the image of a decaying regime that punches above its weight diplomatically to distract its own citizens from the deepening financial and social crisis.

Palestinians are also viewing Algeria’s mediation effort with a lot of misgiving giving the history of the country as an unreliable mediator that has already sided with the PLO against other formations, especially in the Palestinian Islamic movement.

Besides, deepening disagreements within the Palestinian political landscape mean Algerian efforts are doomed to fail. Cracks were apparently deepening between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and influential members of Fatah movement during a recent meeting in Ramallah.

Mohamed EL Hindi, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, told Palestinian media in a comment on Algeria’s hope to bring Palestinians around the negotiation table that “no dialogue…or consensus are possible between the different Palestinian groups who are divided more than ever.”

Hamas, whose leaders never forgot how the Algerian army cracked down on other formations of the Muslim Brotherhood during the civil war in the 1990s, is also unwilling to negotiate amid what its leaders describe as irreconcilable differences.

President Tebboune had claimed that Algiers will host a meeting to reconciliate Palestinian factions, which are now sending a clear message that such an event will not take place.

Algeria’s president also promised that the Arab League summit will take place in March. But none of that happens as Algeria is seen as a country that acts against Arab consensus. First it cut ties with Morocco as it continues to reap defeats on the Sahara issue, it came closer to Iran and its militias, and defends the brutal Assad regime in Syria, to mention but a few factors that make Egypt and other Arab countries, including the Gulf States, view Algeria with a lot of concern and misgiving.

The failure to mediate between Palestinian factions comes after the same military-ruled country failed to mediate between Egypt and Ethiopia on the Nile dam dispute.

A country that has rejected the principle of mediation in its unilateral escalation against Morocco, north Africa’s most stable country, cannot simply be trusted to mediate elsewhere.

In the absence of concrete diplomatic achievements, the Algerian regime invests in fake news. The decision of the African Union to delay a vote on Israel’s observatory status was reported in Algerian official media as a rejection of Israel within the African Union.

The correction came from the African Union’s spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo who dismissed the news as false!