ZIAD Abu Amr, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), has handed an official letter from President Mahmoud Abbas to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad briefing him on the overall situation of the Palestinian cause.
The letter was handed to Deputy Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad during a meeting at the Syrian Foreign Ministry in Damascus on Sunday, to be delivered to the Syrian leader. The meeting was attended by the head of the PLO’s Political Department Anwar Abdul-Hadi.
Abu Amr briefed the Syrian Foreign Minister on the position of the Palestinian people and leadership regarding the US-sponsored ‘Deal of the Century’ peace plan and the Israeli annexation plan, both of which are entirely rejected by the Palestinian people and their leadership.
He also expressed Palestine’s support for Syria in the face of the US’ illegitimate recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, saying Palestine and Syria stand on the same front against the American-Israeli schemes in the region.
Mekdad affirmed his country’s unswerving support for the Palestinian people and their just cause, which he said is a central issue for Syria. He also reiterated his country’s rejection of the Deal of the Century and the Israeli annexation plan.
Meanwhile, Russian air defences have repelled a drone attack launched by unidentified Israeli-supported Islamic groups on the strategic Hmeimim airbase in Western Syria.
Rear Admiral Alexander Shcherbitsky, head of the Russian Defence Ministry’s Centre for Syrian Reconciliation, announced on Sunday that the unmanned aerial vehicles attempting to attack the Syrian base, which hosts Russian forces, were shot down by air defence systems.
Over the past year, the Russian military and the Syrian army have thwarted several drone and mortar attacks launched by militants on the airbase, destroying dozens of drones and multiple-launch rocket system missiles.
Russia has been helping Syrian forces in the ongoing battles across the conflict-plagued country. The Russian military assistance, which began in September 2015 at the official request of the Syrian government, has proved effective as Syrians continue to recapture key areas from Daesh and other terrorist groups across the country thanks to Russian air cover.
Syria has been gripped by a US-UK-backed insurgency since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding the Takfiri and Daesh terrorist groups that are still wreaking havoc in the country.
Meanwhile, a security official for Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah has reiterated the resistance group’s readiness to end the US military presence in Iraq.
Abu Ali al-Askari stressed that the Americans must know that Iraq’s decision on the withdrawal of US troops is ‘irreversible’ and that no one can circumvent the will of the Iraqi people.
‘The resistance must continue with popular, political, security, and media pressure, with full readiness for wide military action until those killers yield to the people’s will,’ Askari said in a Twitter post on Sunday. ‘They only understand the language of force … and we are ready for that,’ he said, adding: ‘We will come out victorious.’
His remarks came a day after a US military convoy carrying logistic supplies was attacked in Iraq, on the road between Samawah and Diwaniyah south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, local media reported.
Anti-US sentiment has been running high in Iraq since Washington assassinated top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and the second-in-command of the Iraqi popular mobilisation units, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in January.
The truth is that when Trump announced his ‘Deal of the Century’ to allow Israel to annex huge chunks of Palestine he lit a fuse that is set to cause a massive explosion of the Arab revolution to liberate Palestine and drive US and UK imperialism out of the Middle East.
At this historic moment the UK trade unions must reiterate their full support for the Palestinian revolution.
