Palestinians in Syria to host counter regional summit this month

Syria-based Palestinian factions opposed to peace with Israel decided Wednesday to hold their regional conference later this month in the Syrian capital, a Palestinian official said.

The meeting - which initially was envisaged as the radical Palestinians' rival to the U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland - will take place January 23-25th here, said Talal Naji, a ranking official with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

The meeting was first announced in October, then postponed for November, but failed to take place at the same time as the Annapolis conference.

Naji said the Damascus meeting would be titled: Sticking to national rights of the Palestinian people: national unity is the road to liberation and return.

Invitations would be sent to all Palestinian factions, Naji said, including Fatah, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Council.

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. allies in the Arab world have criticized the announced meeting in Syria, but that criticism was rejected by the deputy head of the radical Hamas in Damascus, Moussa Abu Marzouk.

Syria is home to the exiled leaders of Hamas, the militant faction that routed Abbas' Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip in June clashes, precipitating the worst Palestinian split to date, and the Islamic Jihad, another smaller militant Palestinian faction.

Also based in Damascus are the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PFLP-General Command and five other smaller factions.

Abu Marzouk said before Annapolis that the purpose of the Damascus gathering was to "send a clear message to the international community and the United States that ... [Abbas] does not represent the Palestinian people in these negotiations."

Syria wields huge influence on Palestinian factions opposed to Abbas and U.S.-led Mideast peacemaking, but it is not clear whether it played a role in getting the hard-line factions to postpone their meeting for after Annapolis.

The Maryland conference relaunched Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations that had been stalled during the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Syria for its part improved ties with the U.S. by attending the Annapolis meeting.

However, that improvement recently waned amid Western accusations Damascus was obstructing efforts to resolve the political deadlock in Lebanon, where Syria backs the Hezbollah-led opposition.