Palestinian groups call for continued 'armed struggle'; Damascus meeting

Seven Palestinian groups on Thursday called for "continued armed struggle" against Israel stressing that the meetings of the Quartet committee on the Middle East and the meetings of the Arab ministers with the US President George Bush were in vain.

Former chairman of the Palestinian national council Khaled al-Fahoum summarized results of the meeting, which included seven Palestinian groups that are headquartered in Damascus. The groups are: the peoples and democratic fronts for the liberation of Palestine, the people's struggle front, al-Saeqa organization, the people command- general leadership, the Hamas, and Islamic Jihad movements, and included the presence of the chairman of the PLO political department Farouk al-Qaddoumi.

Al-Fahoum said that the participants in the meeting stressed "armed struggle is the only way to restore the Palestinian rights and implement international legitimacy resolutions." He added that the participants also called for "having international forces to protect the Palestinian people." An assessment was made of the recent meeting of the Arab peace initiative follow up committee held in Cairo.

Al-Fahoum said that the meetings of the quartet committee composed of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia as well as the meeting of the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia Saud al-Faisal, Egypt's Ahmad Maher and Jordan's Marwan Muasher with Bush were "without any gain and were not decisive." He stressed that the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon "does not want peace and obstructs it deliberately, relying on the American support."