A Gathering of Evil with Evil Intent!
January 21, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I certainly do not expect the announcements that eventually come out of this meeting of evil to have much truth behind them,
but rather a pack of lies framed as the truth. This meeting has been a sort of off again, on again, fiasco for the last couple of weeks, but I held off discussing it until all the participants finally decided to get together.
The reason I am including the Jerusalem Post, DEBKAfile, and Haaretz reports of the same meeting is that this meeting has the potential to be one which will establish the false peace for which I have waited to see for a long time. This meeting could be the initial meeting that produces a meeting of the minds on the best way to achieve the Islamic goal of defeating the nation of Israel, and it is just possible they might see the faking peace with Israel to lull them into a false sense of security.
Don’t pay much attention as to the public statements released to the press that come out of this meeting – watch how the nations and groups participating in it begin to treat Israel after it is over.
We have the key players together who can determine whether or not to create a brief false peace with Israel – the leaders from Syria, Fatah, Hamas, and a special emissary from Iran. The things discussed at this meeting will have a definite influence on which way things are going to proceed over the next few years.
Should they decide to take the “false peace” route, I look for many more secret meetings behind closed doors to take place over the next few months.
Please take the time to read the four articles which follow. It may help you to understand the actions and reactions among the Islamic nations during 2007. They cover the events that led up to the meeting that is going on at the time of the putting up of this Blog on Sunday afternoon CST.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Abbas meeting with Assad, set to hold talks with Mashaal
Khaled abu Toameh and JPost Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
January 20, 2007
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Syria on Saturday and began a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Abbas was also expected to meet with Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal on Saturday evening. According to senior Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan, Abbas and Mashaal would discuss the release of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has been in Hamas captivity for nearly seven months.
Independent Palestinian legislator Ziad Abu Amr, who has been mediating between the Abbas and Mashaal, said Thursday that a meeting would focus on efforts to form a PA unity government and to end the violence between Hamas and Fatah.
Abu Amr denied reports in the Palestinian media that his recent talks in Damascus with Mashaal had failed. He said Mashaal expressed readiness to meet with Abbas to try to prevent an all-out confrontation between Fatah and Hamas.
“Hamas still hasn’t changed its position regarding the proposed unity government,” he said. “If anything, the meeting could ease tensions between the two parties, and this is good enough.”
The Syria talks follow a meeting on Friday between Abbas and Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay, in which Abbas reiterated his opposition to drawing temporary borders for a Palestinian state.
Also on Saturday, Dahlan chastised Palestinian armed factions who fire rockets at Israel.
In an interview to Palestinian television, Dahlan characterized firing rockets from civilian homes as a “cowardly act, that irresponsibly exposes Palestinian children and property to the occupier’s cannons and guns.”
End Jerusalem Post Report
Begin DEBKAfile Report
DEBKAfile reports: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in talks in Damascus Saturday night. A high Iranian official is keeping tabs on Asad and Meshaal
January 20, 2007, 4:24 PM (GMT+02:00)
Abu Mazen’s trip to Damascus, ostensibly to see Syrian president Bashar Asad, connects with efforts by Palestinian intermediaries to arrange a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. DEBKAfile’s sources disclose that a high-ranking Iranian intelligence officer arrived in Damascus this week with requests for information about Abu Mazen’s talks in the Syrian capital.
The live wires behind them are Palestinian tycoon Muhammad Rashid and Fatah activist Nabil Amar, who is now working for Hamas. They are in Damascus pushing hard for an Abbas-Mashaal meeting and have drafted a “Document of Principles for the Establishment of a Palestinian government,” for them to sign.
So far, neither side has accepted the document’s wording or the make-up of the potential government of technocrats that is supposed to include Fatah and Hamas representatives.
The rancor between Abbas and Mashaal is so rooted that Rashid and Amar hope at best for a photo opportunity showing them together, signing the document with a handshake and going their separate ways without speaking to each other. This too has not yet been agreed.
Tehran’s emissary has asked Asad for an explanation on how Muhammad Rashid – seen by Iran as a broker of the reconciliation between Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and the US and Britain – came to be given a free hand in Damascus to mediate ties between Hamas and Washington through Abu Mazen.
When Rice was in Ramallah last Monday, she informed Abbas that the US was vehemently opposed to his trip to the Syrian capital. Later, Rashid and Abbas’ aide, the Gaza-based Muhammad Dahlan, called her several times to talk her round. They argued that the Fatah-Hamas crisis might be resolved if Abbas talked to Asad and Meshaal. The US secretary was not convinced.
The success of the Rashid mediation effort depends very much on the instructions the Iranian emissary brought from Iran to the hardline Hamas leader Meshaal and whether he will obey them.
DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran report that the Islami Republic is not happy with the Syrian government’s frequently published offers of friendlier relations with the US and the revival of peace talks with Israel. The Iranian emissary to Damascus asked Asad to describe how he perceives his strategic partnership with Iran in two or three years’ time.
This query was Iran’s way of checking to see if Asad intended to stick to their alliance in the foreseeable future or break away. The Iranians are also uneasy over Syria’s non-response to the Israeli demand to rein in the Hizballah. The Iranian high-up demanded an unambiguous statement from Asad that his attitude to the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group was unchanged. He asked for a pledge that Damascus would not restrict Iranian arms consignments transiting Syria to the Hizballah, or curb the Shiite militia’s activities in Lebanon. Asad reassured the Iranian official and promised him Tehran had nothing to fear about any change of policy.
Our Middle East sources note that this is the first time since the Iran-Syrian strategic alliance was forged seven years ago that Tehran is showing uncertainty and concern about the Syrian ruler’s commitment.
End DEBKAfile Report
Begin Haaretz Article
Abbas arrives in Damascus to meet Assad, Meshal for pivotal talks
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
January 20, 2007
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Damascus on Saturday where he is set to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad and the head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshal.
Upon his arrival at the Damascus airport, Abbas was greeted by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and then went to the presidential palace for talks with Assad.
He said there were many common issues to be discussed with the Syrians “and it’s high time to discuss these issues.”
Abbas met on Friday night with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay in Amman and rejected the idea of establishing an transitional Palestinian state, saying that a Palestinian state should be established according to United States President George Bush’s road map.
Following the meeting, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat told reporters, “We have seen a commitment tonight from the foreign minister of Canada to a two-state solution, toward pursuing a meaningful peace process and toward the implementation of the roadmap.”
Abbas and Meshal are set to discuss efforts to end conflicts between Hamas and Fatah in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The two leaders have not met in over a year.
Meshal and Abbas completely broke contact for several months following an address by the Hamas leader in Damascus in which he accused the PA chairman of trying to overthrow the elected Hamas government.
Abu Amar and Mohammed Rashid, the economic adviser to the later Yasser Arafat, have been busy for weeks mediating between the two Palestinian leaders.
Abu Amar, who is now in Jordan following meetings in Damascus with Meshal, told Haaretz that there has been significant progress in talks to create a Palestinian national unity government. There are still issues, he said, that require talks between Abbas and Meshal, but did not specify.
According to Abbas, if the latest round of unity government talks with Hamas fails, he will call early elections. Abbas acknowledged, however, that Hamas could emerge the victor once again.
“We say either there is a [unity] government or elections,” he said after a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Elections don’t mean we want to throw Hamas into the sea. It has been elected and can be elected again.”
Palestinian sources on Thursday said that the crux of the dispute over a unity government is the Interior Ministry and who will lead it.
Hamas is demanding that it choose a minister to fill the post, which in effect controls internal security mechanisms.
However, Abbas would like to appoint an independent figure who is not associated with either Fatah or Hamas.
However, it has already been agreed, apparently, that the Abu Amar will be foreign minister in the Palestinian unity government, while the Finance Ministry will be filled by Salam Fayad, who has
already served in that role and who belongs to the Third Way party.
Another disputed issue in the negotiations for a unity government is its diplomatic platform.
There is still no agreement on issues such as acceptance of previous accords signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, or the renouncing all forms of violence. Both are prerequisites for recognition of a Palestinian government by the Quartet of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.
A third is recognition of Israel.
Earlier this week, Haaretz reported that jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti proposed a solution to the impasse, which the two sides are reportedly discussing. It reportedly proposes that current Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will remain in his post, but the foreign affairs, finance and interior ministries be headed by independents.
Meanwhile, Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan , a top adviser to Abbas, issued a veiled threat to the governing Hamas leadership on Friday saying he would “protect” his party’s members from being killed by Hamas.
“I will not accept, or remain silent, if somebody from Fatah is killed by Hamas. No way. There is no compromise on this. If Hamas kills somebody from Fatah, I will confront them,” said in Ramallah.
“Hamas has planned and executed political assassinations against Fatah, but because they have failed to govern they want to rule through the gun. This doesn’t work and Fatah told them so at a major rally on Jan. 7,” Dahlan told reporters. “I said at the rally that we are not going to respond to blood with blood, but we are going to protect our people and we have already begun doing this. It is happening right now.”
Asked how he views his own role, Dahlan said: “I am a member of Fatah, I will continue to serve Fatah. The sons of Fatah like me and I love them. Forget about the suit I’m wearing, I’m a street boy.”
End Haaretz Article
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Abbas-Mashaal meeting begins in Syria
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST
January 21, 2007
Aides of Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal said Sunday evening that his much-anticipated meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had started.
The meeting, which was originally supposed to take place on Saturday night but got postponed, was attended by deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau Moussa Abu Marzouk and other Syrian-based members, as well as Abbas’s close aides.
The two were also expected to hold a secluded meeting later Sunday.
Abbas also postponed a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, citing “emergency circumstances and preoccupation” as the reason. He spoke with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, promising to visit at the earliest possible time.
Conflicting reports had circulated throughout the day following the postponement of the Abbas-Mashaal meeting. A senior Hamas official confirmed on Sunday afternoon that the summit would, indeed, take place – mere hours after saying that the chances of the Damascus summit happening were “nonexistent,” blaming the Fatah chairman for the breakdown of the talks.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’s politburo, said that “active and serious mediation” by Syria succeeded in convincing Abbas and Mashaal to hold the long-negotiated meeting even though political differences on a unity government persist between the two sides.
Following the Syrian mediation to resolve the crisis, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat also said the two Palestinian leaders would meet Sunday night, after all.
“There will be a meeting tonight between Abu Mazen and Khaled Mashaal,” Erekat told reporters, referring to Abbas by his nickname.
The comment came after Abbas met on Sunday with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa, who had earlier talked with Mashaal.
“External factors caused this latest crisis,” Abu Marzouk said, referring to the back-and-forth meeting plans.
He did not elaborate, but the comment reflected Hamas’s suspicions that Abbas had come under Israeli and US pressure not to meet with Mashaal.
The dithering undermined hopes the two rivals could make any sort of headway in forming a national unity government and end months of deadly Palestinian infighting that has claimed at least 62 lives.
Mashaal – the supreme leader of Hamas which the United States has labeled as a terrorist group – has lived in Damascus since 1997, when he survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan.
Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press that the main sticking point in coalition talks were the conditions under which Abbas would name a new prime minister for the national unity government – such as Hamas recognizing Israel’s right to exist and abiding by past agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians.
Hamas has said it would be willing to respect only those previous agreements it deemed as fair to the Palestinians. This falls short of international community’s and Israeli demands that all earlier accords be recognized by Hamas.
In the Hamas stronghold of Gaza, where tensions between the two factions have frequently exploded into open warfare, the group’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the difficulties in convening the meeting were hard “to overcome” but that this did not amount to a “destruction” of the negotiating process.
“We don’t think it is the last chance,” Barhoum said, adding that efforts will continue to bridge the gap. “We will not despair.”
Abbas arrived in Damascus on Saturday and met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. His meeting with Mashaal initially was expected for later Saturday but was then suddenly postponed.
There had been hopes that the two, who last met in July 2005, could end the yearlong political deadlock between the Hamas, which controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet, and Abbas’s more moderate Fatah movement.
The thorniest issues are control of the two factions’ security forces and Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Western nations are demanding that the Islamic group accept Israel’s existence and renounce violence as a condition for ending an economic boycott they imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won legislative elections last year.
Abbas has been pushing Hamas for months to form a unity government of independent experts in hopes of ending the sanctions and has threatened to call early elections if the two sides can’t agree.
Izzat Rashaq, another Hamas official in Syria, said Islamic Jihad leaders and the leaders of other Palestinian factions were involved in mediation efforts to try to resolve the problems between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah.
Abbas came to Damascus bolstered by Israel’s release to him on Friday of $100 million in frozen Palestinian taxes that Israel has refused to turn over to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government.
Israel said the money would be used by Abbas for humanitarian purposes and to strengthen his security forces.
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