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Jordan king to let Mash'al attend father's funeral
Ma'an -- King Abdullah of Jordan will allow the head of Hamas' politburo, Khaled Mash'al, to enter the kingdom for his father's funeral, Jordanian sources said on Friday.
The sources insisted the move was purely humanitarian and did not represent any political shift toward Hamas, and that Mash'al had been banned from the kingdom for over ten years. Jordan and Hamas have had poor relations since five of the Islamic movement's members, including Khaled Mash'al, were expelled to Qatar in 1999. In 2006, Jordan charged others with smuggling weapons from Syria. Meanwhile, de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called Mash'al to extend his condolences, while other Hamas officials expressed sympathy for the exiled leader. The Popular Resistance Movement and its secretary-general, Zakareiyah Dughmush, extended condolences to Mash'al, as well. Abed Ar-Raheem Mash'al was born in the West Bank town of Silwad, near Ramallah. He was active in the resistance against the British Mandate and took part in the 1936 rebellion. The senior Mash'al moved to Kuwait in the 1960s and was joined by his family in 1967 following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. At the outbreak of the Gulf War, he moved to Jordan, where he lived until his death on Friday. Posted by: Fred 2009-08-29 |
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