Last update - 00:00 29/10/2007
Iranian foreign minister meets Hamas officials in Syrian capital
By The Associated Press
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met in Damascus Monday with Palestinian officials, including some from the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, a week before a meeting in Syria meant to counter a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference in the fall.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, said he and Mottaki discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip and the U.S.-sponsored conference which Washington hopes will relaunch negotiations on creating a Palestinian state.
After the meeting between Mottaki and Hamas officials, members of other Palestinian factions, including the leader of Islamic Jihad in Palestine Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, met the Iranian foreign minister, according to a member of the Iranian delegation.
The Iranian delegate spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release the information.
The Damascus November 7 gathering will be attended by Syria-based Palestinian factions who oppose the Arab-Israel peace process and who have not been invited to the conference called for by U.S. president George W. Bush in late November or December at Annapolis, Maryland.
Abu Marzouk said he and Mottaki spoke about recent talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He added the Annapolis meeting will be like a public relations party in the last year of the Bush administration and as an introduction to punitive measures. Abu Marzouk did not clarify who he believes those measures would target.
He also said that Iran has shown readiness to host a Palestinian conference but prefers it be held in an Arab country.
Earlier Monday, Mottaki met with President Bashar Assad and discussed regional issues, including Lebanon's political crisis and the tension on the Iraq-Turkey border following attacks by Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, inside Turkey.
Asked by reporters about U.S. accusations that Iran is smuggling weapons to Shiite militants in Iraq and is responsible for deaths of American soldiers there, Mottaki said Iran has no role in killing American soldiers and that the Islamic Republic regrets those incidents and tells the American people that their sons are being killed for the interest of Bush administration officials.
Iran and Syria, both countries that border Iraq and Turkey have supported Turkey's actions against the PKK. The two countries called for regional cooperation to find a political solution to root-out acts of terrorism by the PKK.
Mottaki, speaking at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem, said PKK's actions could endanger stability in the Middle East.
"No doubt that terrorist actions in northern Iraq will lead to chaos and instability in the whole region," Mottaki said, calling on "joint regional cooperation to root-out this terrorist phenomena." He said Syria and Iran aim to help solve this problem.
Al-Moallem said that Syria and Turkey are exerting efforts to find a political solution to the problem.
"Terrorism that comes from PKK endangers not only Turkey but Syria and Iran as well, and for that reason we want these diplomatic efforts to succeed in a way that would protect Turkish security and the security and stability of Iraq," al-Moallem said.