Summit in Sharm (Archive photo)
Photo: AP
Abbas wants another meeting with Sharon
Photo: AP
Another summit meeting?
Palestinian leader Abbas says he expects to meet with Prime Minister Sharon before pullout gets under way; meanwhile, Hamas leader slams Abbas, says group lost all faith in PA chairman after he failed to deliver on pledges
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas says he expects to meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before the disengagement plan is implemented.
The last meeting, according to the Palestinian leader, “was difficult and ended with modest results.”
In an interview with London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat published Wednesday, Abbas said he hopes the meeting would be more successful than the previous summit meeting between the two figures.
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On another front, Abbas said the Palestinians are doing everything in their power to maintain the calm, but added that Palestinian attacks are usually a response to Israeli military actions.
He also said he hoped the Gaza withdrawal would go ahead as planned and be “quiet, positive, and clean.”
The Palestinian leader is expected to arrive in Syria today for a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad. During the meeting, the two figures are expected to discuss the situation in the territories and contacts with Israel.
The Palestinian leader will likely attempt to elicit Assad’s support for PA efforts to forge a united front comprised of all Palestinian organizations. The two leaders are also set to discuss ways to improve ties between Syria and the PA, a relationship that largely soured during late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s reign.
Hamas slams Abbas
Abbas is scheduled to open his visit to Damascus by meeting with Syrian-based representatives of Palestinian terror groups, headed by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Palestinian leader aims to convince the group to refrain from rejecting his proposal to forge a national unity government with them.
Abbas is also interested in boosting the relative lull in violence, violated again Wednesday morning after the Islamic Jihad fired mortar shells and rockets at Gaza Strip settlements.
However, senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar said earlier his group lost all faith in Abbas and claimed the Palestinian leader failed to implement agreements between the PA and Palestinian factions.
“By failing to deliver on pledges, the Authority is playing with fire,” al-Zahar said. “We warned against the implications of this policy.”
Referring to the disengagement plan, the Hamas man said his movement would not take part in facilitating it.
“The Palestinian national interest is not limited to the West Bank, or just to the Strip, and not even to Jerusalem,” he said. “The Palestinian interest for us in the Hamas is related to Palestine, all of Palestine.”
