Blair's current tour in the Middle East prepares for war on Iran and Syria, Bardawil warns

Bardawil warns: Blair's current tour prepares for war

[ 05/09/2007 - 10:35 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman of the Hamas-affiliated change and reform parliamentary bloc, has charged that the international Quartet envoy Tony Blair's current tour of the region aims at achieving serious goals.

Al-Bardawil, in a press statement, charged that the tour was part of a scheme preparing the atmosphere for a war in the region and for Arab normalization with Israel in return for nothing.

However, he belittled the importance of Blair's tour, affirming that he would fail in achieving any breakthrough in the Middle East settlement process.

"We do not hinge any hope on the visit because there is no real intention for peace or any real peace process in the region," he underscored, adding that preparations are underway for waging a war on Syria or Iran.

The former British premier, who failed in running his country's internal and external policies would not succeed in conspiring against the Arab and Palestinian people, Bardawil affirmed.

He added that another important goal of Blair's tour is to convince Egypt and Saudi Arabia among other Arab countries to attend the autumn conference in the USA along with Israel to impose normalization with occupation.

Within his current tour of the region, Blair met in Alexandria on Tuesday with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to discuss means of pushing forward the Middle East peace process, an official statement said.

Haniya thanks European states for efforts to reconcile Palestinians

[ 05/09/2007 - 09:43 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Ismail Haniya, the premier of the PA caretaker government, has expressed appreciation for the efforts exerted by Italy and some European countries to reconcile Palestinian factions.

He highly praised the statements of Italian premier Romano Prodi and his foreign minister Massimo D'Alema about the need to communicate with Hamas and to lift the siege imposed on the Palestinian people.

During the weekly cabinet meeting in Gaza on Tuesday, Haniya underlined that the meetings with Europeans have never ceased, "as these sides understood our credible orientation towards achieving a just solution to the Palestinian cause as well as our legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian people's right to return to their land".

The premier asked Javier Solana, the high representative for the common foreign and security policy of the EU, to avoid using double standards in dealing with the inter-Palestinian crisis, to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people and not to impose conditions, but rather to communicate and dialogue with the Hamas-led government because attempting to ignore it would not bring stability, security and prosperity to the region.

The premier also appealed to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his intelligence chief Omar Sulaiman to speed up the opening of the Rafah crossing, and lauded the invitation of Algerian Ambassador in Cairo Abdul Kader Hajjar to broaden the work scope of the fact-finding committee to investigate the events in Gaza Strip to become a "committee for reconciliation between Palestinians."

The premier had affirmed at the beginning of the session his rejection of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's edict to amend the election law according to conditions not approved by national consensus, highlighting that this edict is an infringement on the jurisdiction of the PLC and detrimental to the higher national interest.

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