May 30, 06 11:56am
Palestinian rivalries were laid bare at Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) talks yesterday as the Hamas foreign minister walked out in protest over the arrival of the rival Fatah faction leader.
Mahmud al-Zahar, the head of Hamas in its Gaza Strip stronghold, quit the delegation on the eve of the opening of the ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur after Faruq Qaddumi appeared as head of the Palestinian delegation.
Qaddumi derided his rival as a trainee and said that as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) politburo he outranked representatives of the Palestinian Authority government.
"This is a local government," he said referring to Hamas. "I am the PLO sole representative of the Palestinian people. He could not realise that," he told reporters.
"I have had 30 years of experience. This is the first day he is coming to such a conference. I told him 'I would train you and then I will turn over the whole process to you. And you be the minister of foreign affairs'," he said.
The row comes amid a fierce power battle between Hamas and Fatah, the party which dominated Palestinian politics until losing a January parliamentary election.
Qaddumi is based in Tunis, having refused to return to the Palestinian territories along with the rest of the exiled leadership in 1994.
The 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement has urged Palestinians to put aside their differences, saying they need to find unity to establish peace in the region, but Qaddumi denied the scuffle was a major problem.
"If there are slight political differences that does not mean we are not united because both of us are fighting the occupation. Why should we split? Perhaps I could say that the both sides have their own ideas," he said.
Malaysia's Foreign Minister played down the incident, saying it did not represent a boycott and that al-Zahar's visit would now become a bilateral one with the host country.
"We have no problem if both of them want to be present but his visit here he considers it as a bilateral visit so we accept that," Syed Hamid told reporters.
Profound tragedy
In an opening speech to the meeting, NAM chairman Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called for an immediate resolution to the Palestinian crisis, describing it as "one of the most profound tragedies of our time".
"The so-called peace process now lies in tatters," he said, calling for an end to sanctions and saying the conflict would not end until the rights of the Palestinian people were recognised.
He called for recognition of the Hamas government and said that it "must be engaged through contacts and dialogue, not shunned or ostracised and sanctioned."
The Israel-Palestinian conflict is one of the key topics of the NAM meeting. Palestinian officials say they expect the group to adopt a declaration rejecting any Israeli move to unilaterally set its final borders.
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