Palestinian leaders plan landmark Syria visit ahead of election

Palestinian leaders plan landmark Syria visit ahead of election

AFP
Date: Monday November 29

AMMAN (AFP) - The Palestinian leadership said it would make a landmark visit to Syria next month, as it urged Jordan for help to prepare elections in January and vowed to carry out its part of the roadmap peace plan.

PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas told reporters the Palestinian leadership, on its first tour of Arab nations since the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, would visit Damascus on December 6 for talks with Syrian officials.

The visit is expected to patch up ties between the Palestinians and Syria, which had been tense for years after disagreements between Arafat and former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000.

Attempts to reconcile the two sides failed.

But Arafat met Assad's son and presidential successor Bashar in Amman on the sidelines of an Arab summit in March 2001. A visit by Arafat to Damascus in September 2001 was scrapped at the last minute.

"If the visit succeeds it will open a window towards the peace process," former Jordanian prime minister Taher al-Masri told AFP.

Abbas also won a pledge from Jordan that it would help the Palestinians prepare for elections on January 9, called after Arafat's death, and to secure Palestinian statehood.

King Abdullah II said he would raise the issues next month during a visit to the United States for talks with President George W. Bush, Petra news agency reported.

"Jordan backs and supports Palestinan unity and all the efforts taken by the Palestinian leadership to hold elections," he told Abbas, Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qorei and interim Palestinian Authority President Rawhi Fattuh.

The king said he would discuss with Bush "raising support for steps taken by the Palestinian leadership to set up as soon as possible a Palestinian state", Petra said.

The roadmap drawn up by the diplomatic quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia set a 2005 target date for Palestinian statehood but has made virtually no progress since its launch last year.

Representatives of the quartet meeting in Egypt last week on the sidelines of an international conference on Iraq pledged to pool their resources for its implementation.

Earlier Abbas met Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez and discussed with him "the Palestinian situation that emerged following the death of Arafat, the power transfer and the duties which we are carrying out and those facing us".

"All these issues were discussed so that our Jordanian brethren could help us start carrying out our duties," Abbas told a news conference.

But Abbas, the frontrunner in the Palestinian elections, declined to say if he asked Jordan for specific help to bolster Palestinian security forces extend control, particularly after a planned Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Moasher told reporters the Palestinians indicated their determination to implement the Middle East roadmap peace blueprint.

"We heard today a clear, certain and serious commitment on the part of the Palestinians to implement the roadmap and we hope it will be met by a commitment from the Israeli side," Moasher said.

"There is a real opportunity to revive the peace process," Moasher said.

He also called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories "to guarantee the success of Palestinian elections".

Abbas and his delegation returned to the Palestinian territories after visiting Jordan, the second leg of an Arab tour that also took them to Egypt.

Source

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