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Abbas warns of al-Qaeda threat
02/03/2006 21:07 - (SA)
Allenby Bridge - Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas voiced fears on Thursday that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza, as he urged the world to give the incoming Hamas government a chance.
"We have unconfirmed information that al-Qaeda, the way it sent elements to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, may have come to us for sabotage," he said after talks with Israel's centre-left opposition Labour Party leader, Amir Peretz.
Peretz was the first senior Israeli politician to meet the Palestinian Authority president after Islamist group Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, won a general election in January.
The meeting took place at the Allenby Bridge, on the border between the West Bank and Jordan.
"Our security services are trying to use all means to prevent their arrival," Abbas added, echoing an interview published earlier on Thursday in the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.
"We have received indications of a certain al-Qaeda presence in Gaza and the West Bank," said Abbas.
"We are talking about intelligence information, but nothing has been intercepted yet.
"I received that last intelligence report three days ago.
"This is the first time I have spoken about this situation, which is very serious."
Israeli troops
General Dani Arditi, head of Israel's anti-terrorist office, said in October that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the Gaza Strip from Egypt's neighbouring Sinai peninsula after the withdrawal of Israeli troops the previous month.
Asked to comment on Abbas's claims, acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said his security services were ready to cope with any danger.
"I do not know upon what basis these statements were made. "I can promise that Israeli intelligence is monitoring all attempts by terrorist elements to infiltrate our region," he said after talks with President Moshe Katsav.
Will use an 'iron fist'
The interim premier, whose Kadima party is the overwhelming favourite to win Israel's general election on March 28, also vowed to hit Palestinian militant groups with "an iron fist" after a number of recent shooting attacks.
The largest of such radical groups, Hamas, won the Palestinian general election five weeks ago by a landslide.
Abbas urged the international community to give the movement a chance and said it was unrealistic to expect Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel and has carried out multiple suicide attacks, "to do a 180-degree turn in a month".
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