The Hindu : Congress, SP reiterate support to Palestine

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 03, 2002

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Congress, SP reiterate support to Palestine

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 2. Hani Al Hasan, Special Envoy of the Palestine leader, Yasser Arafat, who has been trying to garner the support of the political establishment here, appears to have met with a fair amount of success with some of the main Opposition parties such as the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Indian Union Muslim League, offering their support to the cause of Palestine as well as to Mr. Arafat.

Mr. Hasan held a 45-minute meeting with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today at her residence.

Party sources said Mr. Hasan, member of the PLO Central Council, briefed Ms. Gandhi on the latest developments in West Asia, particularly the ongoing Israeli "repression" in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The Congress Working Committee member and head of the foreign affairs department of the AICC, Natwar Singh, was also present at the meeting. Reiterating the historical support to the legitimate rights of the people of Palestine, Ms. Gandhi asked the envoy to convey her good wishes to Mr. Arafat.

During his meeting with the Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and general secretary, Amar Singh, the PLO envoy apprised them of the latest situation in West Asia.

He urged the party to put pressure on the Centre and create international opinion against the current happenings.

Briefing presspersons, Mr. Yadav said a meeting of the People's Front would be called to discuss the Palestine situation.

The SP would appeal to the Government to work towards bringing both Israel and Palestine for talks.

Meanwhile, the IUML president, G.M. Banatwala, has, in a statement, called upon the United Nations to take a serious view of Israel's continued and blatant defiance of its call to lift the siege of Mr. Arafat's headquarters and quit the Palestinian cities.

"The U.N. cannot remain a passive spectator and must take firm action against Israel without any delay''.

He said he had sent a telegram to the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, urging him to intervene in the matter and to mobilise all the countries and the U.N. for effective action.

The Janata party president, Subramanian Swamy, has, however, come out in support of Israel. Urging the Government not to abandon a "time-tested friend like Israel for Mr. Arafat's word'', he described as "silly" the NDA Government's decision to express "shock'' at the military action initiated by Israel.

In a statement, Dr. Swamy said Mr. Arafat owed an explanation to the world about his inability to put an end to suicide bombings.

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