DAMASCUS: Radical Palestinian groups based in Syria have all closed their offices in Damascus, a leading Palestinian exile said Monday. The closures follow weeks of US pressure on Syria to curb Palestinian militants operating in the country.
Spokesmen for the 10 groups that reject peace with Israel declined to talk to reporters Monday, but journalists who went to the offices of three of the main organizations - Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command — found them closed.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Syrian President Bashar Assad May 3 and said Assad had indicated his government was shutting down some Palestinian groups operating in Damascus. However, in a Newsweek magazine interview this month, Assad said Syria had not made a final decision on restricting Palestinian militants. On Monday, the former head of the Palestine National Council, Khaled al-Fahoum, told The Associated Press the militant groups had "frozen their activities" in Damascus out of concern for Syria. "The decision to freeze our activities came as a result of (US) threats against Syria," not Damascus demands, and to protect Syria from harm, al-Fahoum said.
| "We're doing it for them, 'cuz we're nice..." |
Al-Fahoum said the groups' leaders would remain in Syria, but would not play active political roles. "Circumstances will determine" how long the offices remained shut, he said.
| So the offices will be closed, but the leadership will stay there and continue to pull strings and plot and plan... |
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