Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has snubbed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, skipping a meeting with him in Jordan. Abbas has just carried out a US/Israeli-backed Fatah coup in the West Bank and exiled the democratically-elected Hamas government. King Abdullah, who brokered the unity government deal between Fatah and Hamas in February, has said the factional fighting between the two parties was benefiting only Israel.

Despite calls from King Abdullah and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya himself to re-engage in dialogue, Abbas has taken a page from the West and refused to speak with Hamas entirely. Abbas said he would not enter into talks with the group after their seizure and occupation of his presidential compound in Gaza humiliated him.

King Abdullah seized the chance to make a symbolic gesture by refusing to engage in dialogue himself. Abbas was kept waiting in a palace room for a phone call which never arrived. Humiliated again, an official from Abbas’s office insisted that “the meeting was postponed due to lack of time as both leaders had busy schedules”. Though King Abdullah and the leaders of Jordan and Egypt have shown their support for the Israeli-controlled Abbas government, they have also urged him to engage Hamas in diplomacy.

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