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October 29, 2005
Syria: Denials of Islamic Jihad Operations
Xinhua News reports that Syria has denied allegations that the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad has been operating from Damascus, and claims that the organisations offices in Syria have been closed for some time. The Syrian foreign Ministry released a statement, sayiing that the offices of Islamiic Jihad, and those of other Palestinian militant groups, were shut down two years ago.
The statement came one day after the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations, known collectively as the "Middle East Quartet" urged the nation to close the offices of IJ.
Xinhua claims that "well-placed sources" have said that Ramadan Shallah, secetarry-general of the Islamic Jihad movement, who had been based in syria, left the country several months ago. Syria houses more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees, and has supported their engagement in political activities towards a goal of returning.
ReutersAlertNet quoted the Syrian statement,which also refers to recent Islamic Jihad activity in Israel, where a suicide bomber killed 5 people in Hadera in the West Bank:
"Syria is not involved in this latest operation or any other and we are surprised by this rushed statement that does not have any evidence to back it. The measures the quartet had asked Syria to take have in fact already been undertaken ... They are not at all in conflict with their freedom of political expression and their aspirations as Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland."US President George W Bush has not ruled out the possibility of military action against Syria, which this month was implicated in a UN report as being involved with the car-bomb killing of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik al-Hariri.
Yesterday, thousands of Palestinian refugees demonstrated in Damascus in support of Syria, with supporters of Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Fatah Uprising and others taking part.
And in Ramallah earlier today, according to Brandon Sun, a group of around 60 Islamic Jihad activists gathered outside the offices of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader. They were protesting the arrest of four of their group earlier in the week. Abbas was not present in his compound.
The IJ activists were from Bir Zeit University in Ramallah. Police opened fire to disperse them, so they went on to the centre of Ramallah, where dozens of other young Islamic Jihad members took part in a protest.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 29, 2005 2:45 PM
Comments
The Islamic Jihad is not allowed to have just simple and few weapons. While Israel is allowed to have 200 Nuclear Bomb!!! This shows how great is USA.
Israel has killed 6 palastinian children inside their schools
Anyhow, the great Egyptian president, Anwar Al Sadat, summarized the whole problem in the middle east in just few words: Some people in Israel think they can occupy the palastinian land and have the peace at the same time, and this is impossible. If Israel withdrew their forces from the palastinian land, the whole problem will be solved.
Why don't USA offer just one single American state for Jews to have their country on? or is it supposed that arabs accept what no body else would accept.
Posted by: Ahmed Mohammed at October 29, 2005 5:04 PM
Hello Ahmed,
Will you agree that the Jews have at least as much claim to the lasd as the Muslims? The Jews have been living in the areas for thousands of years before Islam ever arrived on the scene and had been living there since then. Why not let them have a Jewish state in that territory?
Posted by: Isabel de Castilla at October 29, 2005 11:22 PM
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