By Xinhua
Gaza : Left-wing parties of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) announced on Monday that they decided to boycott a Hamas-led conference scheduled to be held in Syria’s Damascus on Jan. 23.
Islamic Hamas movement, Islamic Jihad (Holy War) and other radical parties based in Syria agreed to hold a conference in Damascus on Jan. 23 to protest against what they called “the concessions on legitimate Palestinian principles.”
Salleh Zeidan, a leader in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), said in a statement in Gaza that his group “has no plan to join the conference in Damascus.”
“The Democratic Front is against joining any conference that deepens split and mounts differences among the Palestinian people,” said Zeidan, adding that “we decided to boycott the conference in Damascus.”
Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also announced in a leaflet that it decided “not to join the Damascus conference.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, a major rival to Hamas, accused Hamas for being behind holding the conference in Syria “to create an alternative to Palestine Liberation Organization.”
The conference in Damascus is said to oppose the Israeli-Palestinian talks scheduled to start on Monday on permanent status issues over Jerusalem, the refugees, the Jewish settlements and the borders.
Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, said “the conference will be a platform to stress on the basic legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”