Opening of the Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran Taher al-Nunu, spokesman for the Gaza government announced Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s acceptance to attend the Non Aligned Movement Summit in Tehran in response to Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s invitation. Al-Nunu said in a brief statement, of which Arabstoday obtained a copy, that Haniyeh will participate in the summit as the elected prime minister, calling everyone to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people.
The ‘resigned’ cabinet called for unifying efforts to form a unified delegation to represent Palestine at the Non Aligned summit planned for the end of August at the Iranian capital Tehran.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in Gaza Mohamed Awad said that: “Palestinian vision must be clear and we must unify efforts instead of media statements calling for a boycott.”
Awad slammed the presidency in Ramallah’s rejection of the invitation made by the Tehran government to the forcibly ‘resigned’ cabinet in Gaza to participate in the Non Aligned summit, and demanded them to cooperate for a unified representation of Palestine.
In their turn, the PA Executive Committee considered Iran’s invitation to Haniyeh to the Non Aligned summit as indication that Iran has joined the goals of the inimical Israel choir, aiming - however the interests differ – at undermining the stability of the political system and its elected authorities and striking at the goals of the Palestinian national struggle by protecting division and consolidating ‘inversion’ by encouraging its symbols and providing recognition and legality to them as the Iranian step is entitled to do.
The Executive Committee statement affirmed that it won’t allow any power or regime to transgress the institutions of the Palestinian people or the PA, the legal and only representative of the Palestinian people and won’t allow the instilling of division and rupture among our people and their national movement.
The statement pointed out that Palestinian leadership will take a group of steps based on the Iranian regime’s step aimed at protecting the interests of their people and the one and unified national representation.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reprobated the invitation addressed by the Iranian president to Ismail Haniyeh to participate in the Non Aligned summit planned in Tehran, considering the invitation a strike at one of the main achievements of the Palestinian people, i.e. the unified Palestinian representation within the frame of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, ‘the only and legal representative of our people’. It is also a serious escalation, as Fayyad explained, in Iran’s stance in opposing the unity of the occupied Palestinian lands and the PA’s role in tending to the interests of Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem based on assignment from the PLO.
Fayyad said: “It is sad that this stance by the Iranian regime benefits from the actions of some, especially lately those who went in the direction of dealing with Hamas as if they are the address of the Palestinian people in Gaza and under the title of ‘keenness on standing at an equal distance from all the Palestinian sides’, as if the PA is on various sides and not a home to all Palestinians with all their loyalties and factions in the West Bank and the strip.”
Fayyad considered Haniyeh’s acceptance of this Iranian invitation, should this happen and its intensification of the political division on the Palestinian scene will only be a stab in the heart of the Palestinian national project and will only return deep harm to the efforts of Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence within an independent state on the entirety of its occupied lands since 1967 and reclaiming all their rights according to international law in which the role of the national authority in the Palestinian occupied lands within frame of which the PA is a main constituent.
Fayyad added: “From this perspective, I appeal to brother Ismail Haniyeh to let his Palestinian nationalism rule over any other consideration. His initiative to reject Iranian President’s invitation will be recorded as a historic stance that places him as a responsible leader keen on the higher interests of our people. I am hopeful that brother Ismail Haniyeh will respond to this appeal moved by his conscience and patriotism and will make this stance a milestone in the Palestinian people’s path toward the better, God willing.”
Commenting on Fayyad’s statement Dr Yahya al-Abadseh, deputy leader of Hamas MPs said: “Salam Fayyad’s call for the Prime Minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh to reject Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s invitation to attend the Non Aligned summit is a form of political rudeness” and clarified that if anyone other than Fayyad had said these words, it would have been possible to discuss the issue but Fayyad was never a choice for the Palestinian people but was parachuted into the ministry, according to Abadseh’s words.
Al-Abadseh added in a statement to the press that Fayyad, since his appearance on the Palestinian scene came under deceased president Yasser Arafat to drain the Palestinian Intifada and drain the springs of resistance so this man is the last to speak on an issue of this type, referring to his calls to Haniyeh to refrain from visiting Iran.