Mousa: Gaza visit to break the siege, discuss reconciliation - Abu Zuhri: Abbas should declare end to negotiations

Mousa: Gaza visit to break the siege, discuss reconciliation

[ 09/06/2010 - 11:42 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)-- Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa told reporters on Tuesday night that his visit to Gaza slated for next Sunday would focus on getting acquainted with the suffering of the people in the besieged enclave.

He said that the situation in Gaza is becoming "unbearable and unacceptable", noting that the siege was rejected since the very first day of its imposition.

"We demand an end to that siege without any further delay", Mousa underlined, adding that it was about time for the world to act against the siege and its consequences as well as against settlements in the West Bank and changing conditions in occupied Jerusalem.

He said that the Arab League was serious in demanding an end to the Gaza siege, adding that his visit also fell in this line.

Mousa said that his discussions in Gaza would concentrate on means of breaking the siege in addition to the inter-Palestinian reconciliation efforts especially at the current stage.

Asked whether the Arab League would send aid convoys to Gaza, he said that the matter was being debated, noting that Arab relief convoys did not cease.

Abu Zuhri: Abbas should declare end to negotiations


[ 09/06/2010 - 04:59 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas should declare during his expected meeting later Wednesday with American president Barack Obama an end to negotiations with the Israeli occupation authority (IOA).

Abu Zuhri told the PIC that ending all forms of negotiations with the IOA is the natural response to the massacre committed by Israeli forces against the Freedom Flotilla and all massacres committed against the Palestinian people.

Any other position by Abbas would represent a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and the martyrs of the Flotilla and would make his calls for national reconciliation only an attempt to cover up for his acceptance to continue negotiating the IOA, the spokesman elaborated.

A Hebrew paper, meanwhile, reported on Wednesday that Abbas would meet in Washington with leaders of the Zionist lobby following his meeting with Obama.

Ma'ariv reported that the meeting was previously planned and that 30 of those Zionist lobbyists would attend.

On the ground, Abbas's loyal militias kidnapped seven Hamas supporters in the districts of Nablus, Bethlehem, and Qalqilia, a Hamas statement in the West Bank said on Wednesday.

It added that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in coordination with Abbas's militias detained Muaz Surkaji from his home in Nablus. Muaz, the son of Hamas leader Yusuf Surkaji, who was assassinated by the IOF soldiers, was previously detained by those militias.

The IOF troops also detained Sheikh Jawad Bahar from Al-Khalil, who is a well known Palestinian intellectual and had written many books. Sheikh Bahar was held by Abbas's militias and released after his health condition greatly deteriorated due to the severe torture rounds at the hands of those militias.

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