Islamic Jihad attends first PLO meeting

3/29/2005 2:30:00 PM GMT

The Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad was attending a meeting of the Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee for the first time.

Islamic Jihad and its larger rival Hamas have long boycotted the PLO, which includes the major secular factions, but have recently softened their stance since Mahmood Abbas replaced the late Yasser Arafat as Palestinian President.

PLO chairman Abbas chaired the meeting, which opened Tuesday in Gaza City, with a Jihad member attending as an observer.

Speaking before the meeting, Mohammed al-Hindi, a Jihad leader, said that the negotiations would mainly focus on "rebuilding" the PLO.

The movement didn’t make any formal decision to participate in the PLO, although Hamas said Monday that it was ready to join.

"In this meeting, we will discuss mechanisms to rebuild the PLO and we will see whether we can agree. We will also discuss the PLO's political programme," Hindi said.

However, Hamas did not attend Tuesday's meeting, saying that further internal negotiations were necessary before consultations with the PLO.

"Hamas will not participate in this meeting today," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, noting that the movement may consult Abbas on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"We have agreed to participate in the executive committee of the PLO but we need more internal discussions on the mechanism over what we agreed in the Cairo Declaration," Abu Zuhri said.

The Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, met Abbas for talks on Monday. He said that progress was made at recent inter-Palestinian negotiations in Cairo on disagreements over the PLO charter and the size of Hamas's representation in the council.

Hamas's willingness to join the PLO was a longstanding decision and did not indicate that it abandoned its commitment to a state including all of historic Palestine, he added.

Fatah is the biggest faction in the PLO, and it commands the Palestinian Authority which was formed under the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

The official PLO membership is not expected to be given to Hamas or the Islamic Jihad until after the parliamentary elections, due in July.

Earlier this month, Hamas announced that it would join the Palestinian political mainstream and stand in the elections.