Hamas’s Khaled Mashaal may seek the PLO presidency, according to Arabic outlets reporting on efforts to replace current PLO chair (and incumbent Palestinian Authority President) Mahmoud Abbas. Mashaal was in Jordan on Monday for talks with the country’s King Abdullah II, and reportedly both Jordan and Qatar are ready to back his bid. The gambit will deepen concerns that Hamas, an Iran-backed terror organization formally committed to the eradication of Israel, is using ongoing reconciliation talks between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to effectively supplant Fatah and seize the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Amman and Doha reportedly hope that a Mashaal PLO presidency would move Hamas to recognize past agreements signed with Israel and acknowledge the Jewish state’s right to exist. Arabic media is reporting that in response, Hamas spokesman Yahya Moussa al-Ebadsh stated that “Jordan’s monarch was soon made to eat his words when Hamas shot down his hopeful claims [of recognizing Israel] point blank.”

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