WEST BANK: Abbas meets Israeli Labour Party leader Peretz, says Palestinian forces on alert for Al Qaeda

Record ID: 565000

  • Title: WEST BANK: Abbas meets Israeli Labour Party leader Peretz, says Palestinian forces on alert for Al Qaeda
  • Date: 4th March 2006
  • Summary: ABBAS AND PERETZ SHAKING HANDS, WALK OUT OF ROOM
  • Embargoed: 19th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA8MI4MOVRL2QHYOMXYOMN5ZHK4
  • Story Text: Palestinian security forces are trying to stop infiltration by al Qaeda into the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday (March 2).
    In remarks published earlier, Abbas said there were signs of an al Qaeda presence in both areas. In later public comments he said al Qaeda could be seeking a foothold in the West Bank and Gaza.
    "We have unconfirmed reports that al Qaeda, since it sent its members to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, may also send its members to us for the purposes of sabotage," Abbas said at a news conference with Israeli Labour Party leader Amir Peretz.
    "Our forces are trying with all available means to prevent them from arriving to carry out terrorist acts in this region."
    Abbas, who made no further remarks on al Qaeda, met Peretz at the Allenby Bridge, a key crossing point into Jordan.
    The meeting, joined by Israeli parliament members and Palestinian officials, was followed by a press conference.
    The dovish Labour leader has recently met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Morocco's King Mohammad on his visits to the Arab countries.
    Israeli officials said they were worried that foreign militants and al Qaeda agents entered Gaza from Egypt during a brief period of chaos on the border following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza last year.
    The Palestinian Authority said that was untrue.
    Islamic militant group Hamas swept Palestinian elections in January and is in the middle of forming a government.
    At his first meeting with an Israeli political figure since his election on January 2005, Abbas expressed his aspirations towards peace.
    "What mostly concerns us is how to launch another time towards peace, the peace that is built on fairness and that will please both sides, the Israeli people and the Palestinian people," Abbas told a news conference.
    Peretz met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, trying to boost his uphill bid to become Israel's next prime minister and cast himself as the candidate for peace.
    Opinion polls show centre-left Labour trailing far behind interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party one month before Israel's March 28 general election.
    Untested in war and peace, Peretz has been looking for ways to bolster his leadership credentials since he toppled elder statesman Shimon Peres as Labour party leader last year. In a blow to Labour, Peres joined forces with Kadima.
    Peretz's brief meeting with Abbas at Allenby Bridge on the Jordan River focused on peacemaking prospects, which were dimmed further by the election victory of the Islamic militant group Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
    Peretz said that 'terror organisations' are Israel's main target of war, rather than the Palestinians.
    "I want to clarify that we have no war with the Muslim world, we have no war with the Arab world, we have no war with the Palestinian people. We have a fight against terror organisations," Peretz said, and stressed the need to maintain humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.
    "We object collective punishment, we object humanitarian hurt, we think that we must find together the route to continue humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people," Peretz said at a press conference.
    But while Hamas and other Palestinian Islamic militants share al Qaeda's hatred of the Jewish state and have also used suicide tactics, experts say doctrinal differences preclude cooperation between the groups.
    Al Qaeda and affiliated Islamist militants operate worldwide, targeting non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike.
    By contrast, Hamas and kindred armed Palestinian factions limit their attacks to Israeli Jews and have sought political accommodation with more secular compatriots. Hamas has largely observed a year-old ceasefire.

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