AMMAN, 10 December 2004 — Syria and Lebanon were “very receptive” to Palestinian requests to upgrade relations with them, PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in Jordan after landmark visits to both countries.
“We asked Syria to raise the status from a representation to an embassy and in Lebanon, we asked to open an embassy. They were very receptive,” Abbas told reporters here.
The Palestine Liberation Organization has a representative office in Syria, where Abbas led a high-powered Palestinian delegation earlier this week for talks with President Bashar Assad to mend strained ties.
The delegation, that included Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, then visited Lebanon, home to about 400,000 Palestinian, more than half of who live in miserable conditions in impoverished camps.
The trip to Beirut was the first by top Palestinians since the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was forced out of Lebanon a year after the 1982 Israeli invasion.
Abbas expressed his satisfaction with the talks in Damascus and Beirut, which he said also focused on “the future of the Middle East peace process”.
“We found a positive mood concerning the peace process,” Abbas said. Abbas and his delegation were expected to spend the night in Jordan before traveling back to the West Bank today ahead of a tour of Arab Gulf countries next week.
Meanwhile, Hamas said in Damascus yesterday it was not considering a truce with Israel “for now” to facilitate the January presidential elections, but said it might consider the measure in the future.
“A truce is not an issue that is under consideration for now ... It might be visited in the future,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the group’s political bureau, said by telephone.
His remarks came after a meeting earlier this week with the new Abbas, who has been trying to persuade militant factions to halt attacks against Israel to allow for the January presidential election.
The talks between Abbas and Hamas leaders including politburo chief Khaled Meshaal and Abu Marzouk in Damascus did not change the group’s decision to boycott the elections, Abu Marzouk said. But he added that dialogue would continue.
“We are waiting for practical steps to become optimistic. We presented what we want and what we think is right and the closer Abu Mazen (Abbas) was from our viewpoint the better things would be,” he said. “Everything is possible through dialogue.”
Abu Marzouk reiterated the group’s stance that it would not take part in the elections so long as they are based on an arrangement in which Israel has a role. However, Hamas will not oppose Palestinian statehood despite its announced desire to destroy Israel, he said. “It is the right of Palestinian people to have a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.”
“What we will not accept ... is if a state was (created) in return for giving up any of the rights of the Palestinian people,” Abu Marzouk said.
In another development, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged his Likud party yesterday to vote for a governing alliance with the Labour Party, warning that failure to do so would force snap elections and derail his Gaza withdrawal plan. Internal polls predict victory for Sharon in a crucial ballot by the rightist Likud’s Central Committee on whether to allow him to open talks with center-left Labour on joining a unity coalition to rebuild his shattered government.
But mindful that voter turnout could affect the outcome, Sharon made a last-ditch appeal to the 3,000 committee members not to tie his hands in building a stable government. “This would lead to elections. Elections now would be a major mistake,” Sharon told Israel Radio. “We are in the midst of an initiative to evacuate the Gaza Strip ... All of these steps would be stopped.”
In Gaza, a Palestinian militant leader survived a missile strike, Israel’s first assassination attempt in the occupied territories since Yasser Arafat died in Paris on Nov. 11. Jamal Abu Samhadana, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and two other militants jumped out of their car seconds before it was destroyed by a missile. The three men suffered only light injuries.
Vowing to avenge the strike, the PRC said its response would be “like an earthquake”.
“The senior operative (targeted in the strike) was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks,” the army said.
Sharon has said if necessary Israel would crush militants ahead of the pullout so they could not claim victory. Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said such strikes could undermine efforts to renew peace talks after Arafat’s death.
In Tel Aviv, voting went ahead after a court rejected an 11th-hour challenge by Likud hard-liners to delay the vote.
“The world is watching Israel today ... It is, therefore, so important to come here today and vote. Either Israel progresses or regresses,” Sharon told reporters after casting his vote.
