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Hamas denies Mash'al moved office to Sudan
Ma'an -- Hamas denied reports on Tuesday that the exiled head of its political bureau, Khalid Mash'al, has moved his office from Damascus to Sudan, asserting that relations between the Islamic movement and Syria are still strong. "Our relation with Syria is strategic and deep," said senior Hamas leader Isma'il Radwan. Radwan was addressing a report published in a Kuwaiti newspaper that Mesh'al had moved his operation to Sudan at Syria's request. Unity talks Radwan also denied that his movement received an official invitation from Egypt to Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo. All Hamas learned, he said, was that Egypt will host a Hamas delegation during the last ten days of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan for bilateral talks with the Egyptians who will by then have completed talks with a Fatah delegation. The Reconciliation dialogue in Cairo ended its first week as the Egyptians held bilateral talks with the Islamic Jihad delegation, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who rejected a proposal to deploy troops from Arab states in the Gaza Strip. Radwan said that that proposal was meant to "blow up the dialogue and end it before it starts." The idea of sending some form of international forces to Gaza had been floated as an interim step towards unifying administrative control between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "Let these forces go to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Let them free the holy places," he said. Radwan highlighted that no pressure had been placed on his movement with regard to the proposed Arab force. "If the Egyptians succeed to hold a meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and Khalid Mash'al, reconciliation attempts could work out after the Eid Al-Fitr [at the end of Ramadan]," Radwan explained. Posted by: Fred 2008-09-03 |
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