Slightly EFL
A Palestinian terrorist leader yesterday called on fellow Islamic extremists to attack only Israel and American targets, and stay out of internal Arab politics. In rare public criticism of other militants, Khaled Mashaal, the head of the Hamas political office in Damascus, echoed popular anger in the Arab world at the suicide bombers who killed 17 people, mostly Muslim Arabs, in an attack on a residential compound in Riyadh earlier this month. "Whoever wants to fight, there are two arenas — they can choose one of them," said Mashaal during a speech in Beirut, referring to Iraq and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. "These are the arenas for legitimate violence . . . [or] resistance against invaders and occupiers. We should not occupy ourselves with side battles, no matter what the motives and intentions are." Attacks on Saudi targets amounted to Islamist "tampering with our checkbook internal peace and security", he said. "This is not the arena for military confrontation." Mashaal’s comments reveal the unseen tensions within the Islamist movement. Whereas Palestinian militants seek the help of Arab regimes to help them to attack Israeli targets, groups affiliated to al-Qa’eda seek to attack America and its Arab allies. Mashaal offered firm backing for those attacking American troops in Iraq and mocked President George W Bush. The American leader had "thought Iraq was a bite that would be easy to swallow, to be followed by Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt," he said. "But the Iraqi bite proved to be a tough one to swallow and America choked on it." |