Monday 27 September 2010

Meshaal to Abbas: Hold Your Promise… Quit Talks! - PFLP Suspends Its Membership in PLO

27/09/2010 The head of Hamas political council Khaled Meshaal on Monday called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to quit peace talks with the Israeli enemy after construction of settlements resumed in the occupied West Bank.

"I call on my brothers at the Palestinian Authority, who had stated they would not pursue talks with the enemy if it continued settlement construction, to hold to their promise," Meshaal said at a meeting in the Syrian capital Damascus. "To negotiate without a position of strength is absurd," he stressed.

According to the Meshaal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not the man who can make peace in the region.

Meanwhile, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP that no decision would be taken about the talks until the Palestinian leadership had discussed the issue with Arab foreign ministers on October 4.

Meshaal also called urged Abbas to pursue reconciliation between their two movements Fatah and Hamas, saying it is the best response to Israel's weekend failure to extend a settlement-building freeze.

According to the Palestinian Resistance leader, internal reconciliation would make the Palestinians more powerful in negotiations, calling it a national necessity and the best way to react to the 'Zionist intransigence.'

His comments came in the wake of his meeting in the Syrian capital Damascus with Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmad on Friday. The two factions vowed to continue holding reconciliation talks.

RECONCILIATION TO BE CELEBRATED IN EGYPT SOON

In the meantime, Hamas' deputy politburo chief Moussa Abu Markouz said Hamas and Fatah officials have agreed to hold a second meeting next week in Damascus.

Abu Marzouq told Kuwaiti Al-Jarida newspaper that “Egypt will invite all Palestinian factions to Cairo to sign the document of understanding, announcing Palestinian national reconciliation on a win-win basis.”

He added that “the way of current dialogue was agreed on in Mecca between Omar Suleiman, director of Egyptian general intelligence, and Khaled Meshaal, Hamas political leader.”

During the Mecca meeting and at another meeting in Damascus in which Meshaal met with Azzam al-Ahmed, senior Fatah movement official, three main issues were discussed, said Abu Marzouk. These included reformation of the PLO, election timing, and the formation of election, judicial and security commissions.

Meanwhile:



27/09/2010 In a move to protest the Palestinian Authority talks with Israeli regime, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Sunday suspended its membership in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

"This decision came for two reasons," senior PFLP official Khalida Jarar told AFP about the decision not to participate in meetings of the PLO's powerful Executive Committee.

"Politically, it is related to the structure of the direct negotiations (with Israeli regime), and administratively, it is related to the decision-making process of the PLO," he added.

The PFLP is the second most important member of the umbrella organization after Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement, which has dominated the PLO since its founding in the mid-1960s.

The PFLP said in a statement that its suspension "does not mean that it has joined an alternative to the PLO."



[ 27/09/2010 - 11:02 AM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Maher al-Taher, a senior official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), described PLO institutions as being “formal” and “empty”, while confirming the Front’s decision to suspend its presence in PLO executive committee meetings.

Taher in statements he made to the Palestinian Information Center attributed the PFLP’s decision to cut off from the PLO to several factors including the political one, pointing out in this respect that the authorities in Ramallah surrendered to U.S.-Israeli conditions to resume negotiations.

“We believe this represents new concessions and insistence on continuation of movement of a policy proven to fail and which does not serve in any way the interests of the Palestinian people,” Taher said.

“There is also an organizational reason. We are facing serious developments in Palestine’s internal situation. PLO institutions have been turned into formal and empty ones, and decisions are taken from the Arab monitoring committee and then discussed in the PLO’s executive committee. This has recurred several times since the return to indirect negotiations,” he added.

“We do not accept this situation, because it is considered an abuse of the PLO and its institutions and marginalization of its role,” the PFLP official went on to say.

“The decision should be taken in the Palestinian institutions first and then presented to the Arab and international levels,” Taher clarified.

“Our decision does not mean our complete renouncing of the PLO, because it belongs to the Palestinian people, and it is not the property of any leader or organization. It’s an organization of the people and factions of Palestine; therefore, we will take action and continue to rebuild its institutions democratically, and based on providing collective leadership and participation of national and Islamic forces within its framework.”

The Popular Front decided to suspend its participation in the PLO executive committee during a special meeting of its central committee on Sunday, and warned of attempts by Israel backed by the U.S. to impose recognition of Israel as “a state for the Jewish people” on the agenda of the negotiations as a negotiable issue.

The PFLP called on the Palestinian people, politicians, and independent figures to launch an extensive campaign to put an end to negotiations and replace them with international conferences attended by all relevant parties aimed at binding Israel with UN decisions, particularly the decisions to grant refugees the right to return to their homes, to dismantle settlements, and evict settlers.

More:
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

No comments: