CAIRO, 20 September 2004 — Khaled Meshaal, the political chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement who is at the head of Israel’s most-wanted list, has surfaced in Egypt, Cairo airport sources said yesterday.
The Damascus-based Meshaal emerged as the undisputed leader of Hamas this year after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdelaziz Rantissi, were both killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.
The Egyptian sources said Meshaal — who escaped an Israeli attempt on his life in 1997 — arrived in Cairo late Saturday and was escorted to an undisclosed location.
Several Palestinian groups had been expected to gather in Cairo yesterday, but Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath was quoted by an Egyptian newspaper as saying the inter-faction dialogue had been postponed until early October.
Meshaal’s arrival in Cairo is unlikely to please the authorities in Israel, which signed a peace deal with Egypt in 1979 although relations have soured since the outbreak of the Intifada in late 2000.
Israel warned earlier this month it would target Hamas leaders at home and abroad after a twin suicide attack claimed by the movement in the southern city of Beersheva.
The Israeli government claims that Hamas’s strategic planning is now being almost totally conducted in Damascus, although a handful of autonomous cells still exist in the West Bank and Gaza.
On Sept. 25, 1997, agents from Israel’s Mossad secret service bungled an attempt to assassinate Meshaal on a street in Amman by injecting him with poison.
However, five years ago Jordanian authorities deported Meshaal and four other Hamas leaders amid allegations of illegal activities.
Meshaal now divides his time between Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf countries, but has rarely been seen in Damascus since the Hamas offices were closed amid US pressure.
Washington slapped sanctions on Syria earlier this year, accusing it of backing Palestinian militant groups it regards as terrorist as well as well as seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction, all charges which the Syrian authorities deny.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Rawhi Fattuh, started a four-day visit to Syria. The delegation is scheduled to meet Damascus-based Palestinian leaders to discuss the inter-Palestinian dialogue.
The visit is the first since self-rule was established in the Palestinian territories in 1994.
Asked whether the visit meant official Syrian recognition of the Palestinian Authority, Fattuh said: “Syria recognizes the Palestinian Liberation Organization and we are part of the PLO.”
Fattuh said his delegation would discuss ways of improving relations between Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
