Well, Now, This Is An Interesting Article...

Came across this article today. It discusses a meeting between the Egyptian and Saudi rulers regarding the current Palestinian political situation. A couple points interested me:

The first was a not-so-true comment made by the Egyptian spokesman:

"We are standing by the elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is a symbol of Palestinian legitimacy, chosen by the Palestinian people in free and fair elections," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's spokesman Suleiman Awwad told reporters after the meeting between Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah.

Ok, last I checked, Hamas had actually won the elections, not Abbas, though he did remain president of the PA. Not that I'm siding with Hamas. Or Fatah, for that matter. They're all terrorists. However, it's interesting the author of the article did mention himself the inaccuracy of Awwad's statement.

The second was far more interesting. It seems Iran does not have the widespread support of the Arab world it thinks it has. Neither Egypt nor the Saudis want the Iranians to gain a foothold in the PA for fear that foothold might spread to their own countries and cause chaos and mayhem there:

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have much to lose in the intra-Palestinian struggle. A strong Hamas ruling Gaza could encourage Egypt's own powerful Islamic opposition, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. As a bastion of Sunni Islam and the Arab world's main power broker, conservative Saudi Arabia also worries about Hamas, which has strong links to the kingdom's main foe — Shiite-ruled Iran — and could empower Saudi Islamic militants in the kingdom.

Interesting, that. Now that their own interests might be harmed, suddenly having Hamas rule is not such a good idea for them.