Al-Watan: Inter- Palestinian efforts to halt operations against Israel

The Saudi daily al-Watan said yesterday that the interior minister at the Palestinian Authority Hani al-Hassan is making secret contacts with Arab and Islamic leaderships known for its relations with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to convince them to halt the "suicide" operations against Israel.

In its yesterday's issue, the paper said quoting well-informed European sources that al-Hassan's contacts include Arab Islamic leaderships stationed in Egypt and Jordan and other Arab states with the aim to convince the Palestinian organizations on the need and importance of making a tactical change in its attitudes to halt the operations against civilians in Israel but without halting its activities to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories, but also without giving up its stances and political demands.

The paper commented that this is intended not to give justifications or pretexts for the government of Sharon to carry out wider measures against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The paper explained that these contacts are also in parallel with contacts made by other Palestinian officials and also by Arab and European side with officials in Syria, Iran and certain Arab states for the same objective.