Mideast peace meeting ‘treachery’

DUBA – Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri lashed out at last month’s US-hosted Middle East peace conference, calling it a betrayal of the Palestinians, in an audiotape broacast on an Islamist website on Friday.

The tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, was entitled ‘Annapolis, the treachery’, in an allusion to the US city where the meeting was held. “It is a new conspiracy against Palestine and the countries of Islam,” said Zawahiri, the right arm of Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.The message condemned Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for leading the Palestinian delegation to the conference, describing him as a ‘traitor’ and ‘acolyte’.”Stick to the side of your brothers in Palestine.Do not abandon their mujahedeen (holy warriors),” said the text, addressed to the ‘Islamic nation’.”Support them with all you are capable of: your lives, your money, your expertise, your knowledge and your contacts …Attack those crusader and Zionist targets which you can reach,” said Zawahiri in his message, signed off As-Sahab, the media arm of al Qaeda.Zawahiri, known as Qaeda’s ideological thinker, criticised the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, without naming it, for having ‘mandated Mahmud Abbas to negotiate’ with Israel during the formation of the short-lived national unity government of Hamas and Fatah.This was agreed in Mecca under the tutelage of Saudi Arabia last February but collapsed and led to the bloody mid-June seizure of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, leaving Fatah only in control of parts of the occupied West Bank.”Isn’t it high time that you announced your withdrawal from the Mecca accord and non-respect of all the international resolutions which have sold Palestine,” he told the Palestinian Islamist movement.Nampa-AFP”It is a new conspiracy against Palestine and the countries of Islam,” said Zawahiri, the right arm of Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.The message condemned Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for leading the Palestinian delegation to the conference, describing him as a ‘traitor’ and ‘acolyte’.”Stick to the side of your brothers in Palestine.Do not abandon their mujahedeen (holy warriors),” said the text, addressed to the ‘Islamic nation’.”Support them with all you are capable of: your lives, your money, your expertise, your knowledge and your contacts …Attack those crusader and Zionist targets which you can reach,” said Zawahiri in his message, signed off As-Sahab, the media arm of al Qaeda.Zawahiri, known as Qaeda’s ideological thinker, criticised the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, without naming it, for having ‘mandated Mahmud Abbas to negotiate’ with Israel during the formation of the short-lived national unity government of Hamas and Fatah.This was agreed in Mecca under the tutelage of Saudi Arabia last February but collapsed and led to the bloody mid-June seizure of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, leaving Fatah only in control of parts of the occupied West Bank.”Isn’t it high time that you announced your withdrawal from the Mecca accord and non-respect of all the international resolutions which have sold Palestine,” he told the Palestinian Islamist movement.Nampa-AFP