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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Syria: Kaddoumi banned from entry
2008-05-07
(AKI) - Syria has banned the president of the political office of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Farouk Kaddoumi, from entering the country.

According to Palestinian sources quoted in the Arab newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, Kaddoumi intended to go to Damascus in a bid to resume dialogue between the ruling Fatah and the Islamist Hamas movement. Kaddoumi is known for being very critical of the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. According to the newspaper, Kaddoumi was reportedly looking to revive internal divisions within Fatah to create a new organisation to counter the line taken by Abbas.
It is the third time that Syria has rejected a visa request from Kaddoumi.
It is the third time that Syria has rejected a visa request from Kaddoumi. On the other two occasions he tried to go to Damascus not only to resume dialogue with Hamas but to look at uniting his group with dissidents who left Fatah in 1982 to create Fatah al-Intifada, whose headquarters is based in Syria. It seems that the Syrian authorites do not want to be responsible for a new internal division in the Abbas government.

The PLO, founded in 1964 is the Palestinians' highest decision-making body and considered the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
Posted by:Fred

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