Palestinian envoy delivers message to Syrian president

Mar 25, 2007, 15:23 GMT

Damascus - Syrian Vice-President Farouk al-Sharaa held talks Sunday with an envoy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the need of the Arab Summit to push for the lifting the Western embargo the Palestinian government, Syria's official news agency SANA reported.

Rohi Fattouh, Abbas' envoy, delivered a message from Abbas to Syrian President Bashar Assad on 'latest developments on the Palestinians arena,' SANA said without providing details on the content of the message.

Sharaa discussed with Fattouh issues on the agenda of the March 28 Arab Summit to be held in Riyadh, and the need for the summit to 'come out with clear-cut decisions supporting the Palestinian national unity government, adopt a unified Arab stance to lift the (Western financial and diplomatic) siege and reject Israeli manoeuvres aiming at undermining the Arab peace initiative' that was adopted in Beirut Summit 2002, SANA said.

Fattouh, the former head of the National Palestinian Legislative Council, arrived in Damascus late Saturday and held separate talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and with leaders of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Shortly before meeting Sharaa, Fatouh told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the aim of his visit is to brief the Syrian leadership on the latest development on the Palestinian arena.

He indicated that the international siege imposed on the Palestinian people has started to 'collapse' following the formation of the national unity government, adding that some Arabs have also started breaking the siege 'even though not completely.'

The two rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah, formed a national unity government with the aim to halt inter-Palestinian fighting and pave the way for lifting the Western-imposed siege on the Islamist group Hamas.

The coalition government that replaced the Hamas government stopped short of meeting international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians. The USA, Israel and EU continued to refuse to meet with the government.

Fatouh said the political stand of Hamas is different now from the previous one.

'There is a development in Hamas' political stand in dealing with the international proposals, especially the establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967,' he said.

On his meeting with Hamas leaders, Fatouh said there are still 'some negative repercussions on the ground (from the inter-fighting with Fatah before Mecca accord) which we try to bypass so that the unity government can go on.'

He pointed out that there are still some concerns among the Palestinian people that the agreement between Hamas and Fatah might not survive, a matter that would dampen hopes of any lifting of the international siege.

Fatouh, who represents the more moderate Palestinian president, made it clear that Palestinians would never agree on any amendments on the Arabs' peace initiative adopted in Beirut in 2002, adding that the Riyadh summit this week would discuss mechanisms for putting the initiative in force.

Israel has made it clear it rejects the provision in the initiative that keeps the Palestinian refugees' right to return to lands from which they fled in 1948 and 1967.