Beirut: Hamas meets with Fatah and Islamic Jihad

A delegation from the Islamic resistance movement Hamas met with a delegation from Fatah and one from Islamic Jihad in two separate meetings yesterday in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

In the first meeting, the Hamas and Fatah delegations discussed the means to support and develop the Palestinian intifada.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ali Baraka, and Hamas officials Jamal Issa, Osama Hamdan, Ibrahim Salah and Ahmad Abdul Hadi made up the group’s delegration. While Central Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad and Revolutionary Council members Fathi Abu Al-Ardat and Ashraf Dabbour attended the meeting on behalf of Fatah.

Both sides presented methods to support the popular uprising and intifada, as well as developing and improving it, and ensuring its continuation to achieve the goals of the Palestinian people.

They also stressed the need to end the occupation, remove illegal settlements, and protect the Muslim and Christian holy sites, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque, and guard it from the danger of temporal and spatial division.

The two delegations agreed to unite the efforts of all Palestinian factions in order to confront the occupation. They also agreed to cooperate, coordinate and intensify the meetings amongst the various factions in order to achieve national reconciliation.

In another meeting, Abu Marzouk met with a leadership delegation from Islamic Jihad, led by Ziyad Al-Nakhalah, thr group’s deputy secretary general, as well as the movement’s representative in Lebanon, Abu Imad Al-Rifai.

Both sides discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian issue, mainly the popular uprising that began earlier this month.

They both highlighted the need to support the Jerusalem Intifada and develop it by every available means until victory, return and liberation are achieved. They agreed on the importance of uniting the Palestinian position against the occupation.