Damascus,
March 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Under mounting pressures from
Washington, Syria has ordered the leaders of the two main Palestinian
resistance groups – Hamas and Islamic Jihad – to leave the
country, IslamOnline.net can reveal.
“Syria
closed the offices of (Islamic) Jihad and Hamas, cut off their phone
lines and ordered (Ramadan) Shallah and (Khaled) Meshaal to leave its
territory,” ex-head of the Palestinian National Council, Khaled
Al-Fahoum, told IOL.
Meshaal,
the political head of Hamas, has been moving between Syria and Qatar
while Shallah, the leader of the Islamic Jihad, was residing almost
permanently in Damascus.
According
to Al-Fahoum, both Meshaal and Shallah have already left the Syrian
capital.
Palestinian
sources revealed to IOL that the Jihad leader went directly to the
headquarters of the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah to meet its
leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
Meshaal
moved to the Qatari capital, according to Al-Fahoum.
Heading
off Pressure
 |
|
Shallah
reportedly headed for
Lebanon
.
|
The
Palestinian sources explained that Syria had to take such a move to
counter Israeli and US accusations of being responsible for the
February 25 Tel Aviv bombing, which was claimed by Islamic Jihad.
Following
the bombing – that targeted an Israeli nightclub and killed five
Israelis – Israel alleged it had shown documents to foreign
diplomats linking Shallah (based in Damascus then) and the West Bank
cell that carried out the operation.
US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also spoke lately about “strong
evidence” against Islamic Jihad in Damascus.
Syria
has always rejected claims by Washington and Tel Aviv of harboring
what they call Palestinian “terrorists”, maintaining that the
offices of Palestinian resistance factions on its soil are media
branches.
Washington
demands Syria to stop its support of Palestinian resistance factions
on its soil, backing of Hizbullah, withdrawing troops from Lebanon and
stopping what the US says “militants pouring into Iraq through
Syria-Iraq borders”.
On
Saturday, March 5, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said he will
withdraw all troops in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa valley and then to
the borders, but the US described the decision as “not enough”.
Hizbullah
Meanwhile,
observers expected Hizbullah’s protection of Shallah – if such
reports are verified – would add to international and Israeli
pressures on the Lebanese resistance movement.
Addressing
a press conference Sunday, Nasrallah called for a massive march
Tuesday, March 8, outside the UN house in downtown Beirut to denounce
foreign intervention in Lebanon's affairs and to express gratitude to
neighboring Syria.
“The
aim of Tuesday's demonstration will be to denounce UN Security Council
resolution 1559 and express gratitude to Syria for its achievements in
Lebanon,” he said.
Nasrallah
further rejected calls for disarming the resistance group saying
Lebanon still needed fighters to defend
the
country against Israel.
