Lebanese clergy continues visit to Jordan

The observer general of the Muslim Brothers group in Jordan, Abdul Majid Zuneibat, the secretary general of the Islamic Labor Front party, Abdul Latif Arabyeta, and the chairman of the party's Shoura council, Issac al-Farhan, met on Tuesday evening with the chairman of the higher Shiite Islamic council in Lebanon, Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Shamseddine, with the objective of learning about the results of Sheikh Shamseddine's meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II concerning the issue of the Hamas movement and its detained leaders.

According to "a very well-informed source" in Amman the three men could not talk with Sheikh Shamseddine about this matter because of the great numbers of visitors with him. The visitors are said to be close to the Jordanian government, and therefore the three men were obliged to debate with Sheikh Shamseddine general Islamic issues and cooperation and openness among the Islamic sects.

The source quoted Zneibat as saying there will be another meeting with Sheikh Shamseddine for this purpose.

The statement released by the Jordanian royal court on the meeting between the king and Sheikh Shamseddine had no indication of the question of Hamas and the efforts made by the chairman of the higher Shiite Islamic council in Lebanon to bring viewpoints together and settle the crisis between the Jordanian government and Hamas.

Meanwhile, the commission in charge of defending the detained Hamas leaders stressed that the Jordanian attorney general intends to address new accusations against each of the chairman of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, Khaled Mashaal, and its official spokesman, Ibrahim Ghoshe. Both men are detained in Jordan.