Tehran and the Palestinian ‘legitimacies’ dilemma

Whatever Iran’s motivations were to send "two invitations" to Palestinians to participate in the 16th Summit of the Non Aligned Countries, the ensuing chaos, reactions, threats to boycott (from Ramallah) and preparations to participate (in Gaza) revealed the Palestinian legitimacies dilemma. It also revealed the “Non-systematic” Palestinian political system, and the gendarmerie depth of the Palestinian divide. It also exposed what followed the “daring” of different regional and international parties to overcome and insult the Palestinian “legitimacies” that should unite together. First of all, we don’t believe in Iranian “denials/illustration” that Iran only invited president Abaas only. Iran has invited President of the dismissal Government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mahmoud Abbas too before this, and it would have been better that Iran spoke differently after threatening President Abbas of not attending the summit if Haniyeh attended without any need. And, we don’t believe brother Abo al-Abd when he said that he “thought, managed and decided” to apologise for “not participating” for two reasons: the first “that he cared about avoiding everything that would help 'deepen the Palestinian divide' and the second one was "disputes with Iran on the situation in the Syrian crisis". If caring about avoiding everything that would help “deepen the divide” because the office of the President of the dismissed government was equivalent to caring to confirm the news that Haniyeh’s received the invitation and decided to accept it. There was no doubt that the presidency in Ramallah did not raise all these “whirlwinds” from boycotting threats. In my opinion, and there is no sin here,  Haniyeh would not hesitate to go to Tehran if the Iranian leadership insisted on inviting him, and did not cancel it after they become sure of the “peremptory” of the official Palestinian position which is heading towards boycott. Haniyeh was going to Iran, and he knows that it is the first and maybe the last regional ally to al-Assad. The dispute about Syria will not stop Haniyeh from accepting Tehran’s invitation. He accepted it anyway, and started packing his bags. This included his former Foreign Minister, Mahmoud al-Zahaar and others from the Gaza government, who have visited Iran many times, and at the height of the Syrian crisis, after the departure of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus months before. All that happened at the height of the dispute with Iran about Syria, without "spoiling the difference of views of intimacy". For all this and that, we found and still find that it is difficult to accept the statements of Haniyeh’s office, or you can say his "excuses". As for the situation from the Iranian perspective, it seems to be that Iran doesn’t want to alienate its ties with Hamas even if Hamas turned its back to it. Iran is responsible foer Hamas – Gaza, specifically, the military wing more than its political bureau. It seems that it decided to put its papers in Hamas’s  basket –Gaza after the leadership was stranded abroad to adapt to their political conditions (Doha agreement) especially after moving the political movement bureau to Doha. There is evidence that the Iranian support to Hamas in Gaza came after Damascus ceased to be an incubator for the political bureau . Iran by this invitation to Haniyeh to participate in Non-Aligned Summit was filtering through it the wide Brotherhood trend in the Arab world, not the "opposition trend" in Hamas only. Iran noted its doubled efforts to bridge with the Brotherhood and gain their love and strengthen ties with them, especially Egypt and its President, Mohammed Morsi. As for President Abbas, who took a firm position on the issue of "dual representation" at the summit, he reflected a traditional Palestinian position, historically based on the hands of the late President Yasser Arafat. I think that his success in winning the "battle of representation in Tehran" has given him a good feeling, we hoped and still hope to use it in giving a new push for the faltering reconciliation, which we are about to lose hope in achieving. What happened in the last few days gives new evidence on the misery of Palestinian internal life, and to renew the invitation to continue what was started in Cairo and passed by Doha. What happened to the need to search for a “transition” formula to avoid embarrassments like the kind we have witnessed? It was possible to synthesise a consensual delegation for the Non-Aligned Summit headed by the president, officials in Hamas, movement or government, one unified delegation... and it is something we can think about and approve of in the conferences and occasions that Palestinians don’t receive one invitation for, not two... at least for the equivalent of the rows and filling the gaps. If we don’t say that it is a kind of “training” on agreement and live together, at least. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.