25th anniversary of Hamas next time at Haifa. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Sunday, 9 December 2012, that he planned to head to Cairo soon to resume reconciliation talks with Hamas but did not condemn the statements by Hamas. “Reconciliation [with Hamas] is dear to us and the unity of our people,” Abbas told the Arab League in Doha, Qatar. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal agreed. He told an audience at Gaza’s Islamic University that “responsibility for Palestine is bigger than one faction alone... Hamas cannot do without Fatah and Fatah cannot do without Hamas.” The two Palestinian groups have been rivals since Hamas
President of the State of Palestine Since then, both functions (President of the SoP and of the PA) were simultaneously performed by a single person. In 2012, the United Nations recognized the "State of Palestine" as non-member observer state, but this did not abolish the function of President of the Palestinian Authority, as this originated from the Oslo Accords. Unlike the President of the Palestinian Authority, the position of President of the State of Palestine is not validated by democratic elections, but rather by the PLO Central Council. In 1989, the PLO Central Council elected Arafat the first President of the State of Palestine. At the