Iran is behind the “disturbing” Palestinian discord and trying to hijack the Palestinian cause by instigating Hamas, a top PLO leader said Tuesday. The Palestine Liberation Organization will not allow Iran a regional foothold to sabotage all that has beeen achieved, said Yasser Abd Rabbo, PLO secretary-general, by telephone from Abu Dhabi during an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of nine Arab states, including the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas. “The Palestinian people will not compromise on the legitimacy of the PLO, the umbrella organization of Palestinian groups,” Abd Rabbo told Saudi Gazette by phone. “No compromise on this, it's the red line.” Abd Rabbo was speaking shortly before foreign ministers called for an end to “non-Arab” inteference in regional affairs. “We are working to get beyond a difficult phase and create an Arab consensus on stopping unwelcome and unconstructive interference in our affairs by non-Arab parties,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nayahan said. The Abu Dhabi meeting by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt and their counterparts from the UAE, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain and the PA was aimed at bridging Palestinian differences and generating more support for the Arab initiative for peace with Israel. Participants reaffirmed their support for the Palestinian Authority of Abbas and of the PLO “as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Iran supports Hamas in its political struggle with Abbas and his Fatah movement. Tunisian Foreign Minister Abdelwahab Abdallah said the meeting was to “confer on the best ways to overcome our differences and to contribute to Palestinian reconciliation.” Those consultations will continue at a March 3 meeting of the Arab League council in Cairo, ahead of the 22-member organization's annual summit in Doha later that month, he added. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki said: “We want to go to the Doha summit in a positive spirit in order for that meeting to be a success. That is why we are working to clean up our relations and create the conditions for that success.” Meanwhile in Cairo, Hamas representatives met Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Cairo's pointman on Palestinian and Israeli affairs, hours after Gaza militants fired a rocket at an Israeli town. Israeli warplanes bombed smuggling tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt in response and the Jewish state warned of the “severest riposte” to rocket fire. Hamas has said the group is ready to agree to a one-year truce with Israel, but has not ruled out an 18-month truce proposed by Egyptian mediators.
