A senior Hamas leader said on Wednesday that Palestinian
factions will hold a conference in Gaza in parallel with Damascus
wider conference against a US-hosted Mideast peace conference.
"The (Gaza) conference aims to support the resistance and
maintain the Palestinian rights and principles," Hamas lawmaker
Mahmoud Zahar told reporters in Gaza.
Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who will join the
US-sponsored Middle East peace conference, sent a number of his
aides to Syria to convince the Syrian leadership to prevent the
holding of Hamas-sponsored Damascus conference.
"Syria will not listen to Abbas or those who control Abbas,"
Zahar said.
The Palestinian president of rival Fatah movement has once asked
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "to stop Hamas on its limits",
"but al-Assad told him (Abbas) that Syria hosts the Palestinian
factions because they are resistance factions and they are not
subject for trade," Zahar noted.
It was reported that Hamas, Islamic Jihad (Holy War) and the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) will
participate in Damascus conference.
Abbas' Palestinian National Authority (PNA) fears that Hamas may
succeed in forming a body like the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) after the conference.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2007)
