Several radical Palestinian factions said it was business as usual for their offices in Damascus on Sunday, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell said Syria had begun to clamp down on them.
| Bashar's a very stupid man, isn't he? Does he think he's going to be asked a third time? |
"This is just talk, it's a storm in a cup because we are merely media offices," Abu Jihad Talaat of Islamic Jihad told Reuters. "The position of (Syrian President) Dr Bashar al-Assad is very clear toward the Palestinian people's rights." Islamic Jihad has claimed many suicide attacks during the the 31-month-old Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying it is legitimate to resist Israeli occupation. It says its Damascus office plays no part in planning such attacks.
Marwan Abou Sami, a member of the political office of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the groups had not been told officially of any move to shut their offices. In a recent meeting with Palestinian groups, Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa "did not talk of the closure of any offices and did not offer any advice that we join (the policies of) the Palestinian Authority," said Abou Sami.
Moutasem Hamadeh, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said of the meeting with Sharaa: "What the Syrian leadership informed us about was its commitment to safeguard the rights of the Palestinian people. Powell knows very well that our offices have no role in the uprising. He, with his country's massive intelligence service, knows that we are only press offices."
| This is starting to sound like the ISI meeting with the Taliban in the aftermath of 9-11. I notice the ISI wasn't what ended up getting dismantled, though... |
The Damascus office of Hamas, the biggest militant group, declined comment on Powell's remarks, but in Beirut the group shrugged off U.S. pressure, saying its office in Syria was open and that the fight with Israel would continue. |