Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) visited Kuwait Sunday, signaling an end to the 14-year-old freeze in relations since Yasser Arafat supported the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Abu Mazen apologized for the former anti-Kuwaiti policy which caused the oil-rich country to cut off funds to the PLO.
Kuwait’s prime minister told reporters, "We welcome the visit by our brother Abu Mazen.”
Syria also is lining up behind the PA and has opened up a direct phone line with the PLO in Ramallah, according to the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hiat. The link will make it easier for the Arabs to coordinate positions and exchange information. Al-Hiat stated that Syria will return to the PA more than 40 buildings that a rebel Syrian PLO leader seized and that it also agreed to the PA’s opening an embassy in Damascus.
As the pan-Arab diplomatic front broadens, its demands from Israel have become more extreme. Abu Mazen, the official PLO Fatah candidate for president and who is expected to be elected January 9, denied in a Newsweek magazine interview two weeks ago that he would ever give up the demand that Israel allow immigration of more than three million Arabs. “I'm not talking about anything beyond the Roadmap,” he said, referring to the Bush plan, which does not include large-scale immigration.
His statements since have been harsher towards demanding everything that Arafat insisted in the disastrous Oslo talks. He stated last week that “there will be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem” as its capital. He also told his parliament, according to a UPI report, “We promise that we will not rest until the right of return of our people is achieved and the tragedy of our diaspora ends.”
Kuwait’s prime minister told reporters, "We welcome the visit by our brother Abu Mazen.”
Syria also is lining up behind the PA and has opened up a direct phone line with the PLO in Ramallah, according to the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hiat. The link will make it easier for the Arabs to coordinate positions and exchange information. Al-Hiat stated that Syria will return to the PA more than 40 buildings that a rebel Syrian PLO leader seized and that it also agreed to the PA’s opening an embassy in Damascus.
As the pan-Arab diplomatic front broadens, its demands from Israel have become more extreme. Abu Mazen, the official PLO Fatah candidate for president and who is expected to be elected January 9, denied in a Newsweek magazine interview two weeks ago that he would ever give up the demand that Israel allow immigration of more than three million Arabs. “I'm not talking about anything beyond the Roadmap,” he said, referring to the Bush plan, which does not include large-scale immigration.
His statements since have been harsher towards demanding everything that Arafat insisted in the disastrous Oslo talks. He stated last week that “there will be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem” as its capital. He also told his parliament, according to a UPI report, “We promise that we will not rest until the right of return of our people is achieved and the tragedy of our diaspora ends.”