Syrian President confers with Hamas founder

Syrian President Hafez al-Assad on Sunday at al-Shaab Presidential Palace in Damascus, the founder of Hamas (the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement), Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, and members of the accompanying delegation, including the head of the movement's political bureau Khaled Mishal, the bureau's former chairman Mousa Abu Marzouk, and two bureau members Ibrahim Ghoshi and Imad al-Alami, who are the representatives of the Hamas movement in Syria and Lebanon.

Talks dealt with Israeli policy and the Israeli government's acts of repression against the Palestinian people. Sheikh Yassin thanked Syria for "her historic stands in support of the cause of Palestine."

Meanwhile, in a statement to the local Syrian Arabic daily Tishreen, Sheikh Yassin stated that Hamas supports Palestinian national unity, and will not be pushed to the ambush of civil war, which Israel is trying to create among the Palestinians. He refuted the "capitulation aspects" of Oslo deal, describing it as a disaster for the Palestinian people, adding that no one had benefited "from it except the Jews."

"We are fighting for our rights. It is impossible to bow to America nor to Israel or to any one in the world," Sheikh Yassin added.

Replying to a question on the prospects for resisting Israel, Yassin said events have shown that Israel understands only the language of arms: "He who will occupy others' lands and continues to build settlements cannot be confronted except through the use of arms. Palestine can be only liberated through armed struggle and martyrdom. Those who pin hopes on the US and Europe are totally mistaken."