A SENIOR Hamas official has told Press TV that Palestinians will resist the so-called deal of the century proposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump, stopping at nothing less than creating an ‘independent Palestinian state’.
‘As Palestinians, we will not accept such ideas. We will resist. No one can accept selling his own land.
‘We will not accept Jerusalem al-Quds being the capital of another state; it will be the capital of the Palestinian state forever,’ said Hamas’ international relations committee head Osama Hamdan on Friday.
Hamdan made the comments on the sidelines of the first ‘Return of the Century’ international graphic arts workshop for Palestine, which is currently being held in Mashhad, Iran.
The workshop has been held in a bid to raise awareness about the Israeli occupation of Palestine as well as Trump’s ‘deal of the century,’ and the people’s right of return to their own land.
Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is expected to be unveiled at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in June.
Describing the so-called plan as ‘a new Israeli-American arrangement’ for the region, Hamdan said that Palestinians stood united against any concessions on the liberation and sovereignty of Palestine.
‘We have to liberate it. There are Palestinian refugees that have to return to their homeland and we have to create our own independent state on all the Palestinian lands from the river to the sea,’ he said.
Hamdan also made reference to what he described as the Palestinian nation’s objection to former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s Camp David negotiations with Israel.
‘If anyone of the Arabs is seeking to have relations with Israel, he can bring the Israelis to his homeland, not Palestine,’ he said.
The Hamas official added that, ‘if anyone wants to do anything good, he has to help the Palestinians and the resistance against the occupation’.
Hamdan went on to laud the weekly ‘Right to Return’ marches that have been held in the Gaza Strip since March 2018 as part of the ‘resistance against the occupation’.
‘We will continue the resistance, be it by either the return marches or by military action against the occupation. We will do it until the occupation ceases to exist on Palestinian land,’ he said.
The ‘Return of the Century’ workshop, which kicked off on May 1st and will continue for three days, is attended by graphic designers from 12 countries.
Thirty artists from Iran are also participating in the event.
Iran is set to host a workshop on the right of Palestinians to return to their homes amid reports that an imminent US ‘deal of century’ would do away with that right.
According to organisers, 40 posters will be selected to be showcased by pro-Palestinian groups around the world on Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe) as well as the International Quds Day.
- A high-ranking Russia military official says foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants have attempted to shell the country’s strategic Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s western coastal province of Latakia, but it was successfully foiled.
‘On May 2, militants from illegal armed groups, who hold positions near the towns of Qalaat al-Madiq and Bab al-Atika, made another attempt to shell the Hmeimim airbase.
‘Their attempt was repelled. No Russian servicemen were injured, and no damage was done to the facility,’ Major General Viktor Kupchishin, the head of the Russian Defence Ministry’s Centre for Syrian Reconciliation, said on Friday.
Syrian air defences have shot down three ‘hostile’ targets over the Russian air base in the country’s western coastal province of Latakia.
He added that Takfiri militants had also launched barrages of shells at the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo, Handarat town north of Aleppo city, as well as the city of Mahardah and Saklabiya town in Syria’s western-central Hama province over the past 24 hours.
The Russian military says 12 drone and rocket attacks staged by terrorists in Syria’s Latakia have been repelled during the past month.
Kupchishin said on Wednesday that the Russian military had repelled 12 drone and rocket attacks by terrorists based in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib against Hmeimim airbase and positions of Syrian government forces in Latakia since early April.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry has dismissed media reports that four Russian servicemen had been killed as terrorists shelled an area in Syria’s Hama province.
The ministry, in a statement released on Thursday, described the reports as ‘fake news’, stressing that all Russian forces deployed in Syria are well and fulfilling their duties.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.
The Russian army has launched a mobile exhibition to display military vehicles and weapons it captured from militants fighting in Syria.
Russia has been helping Syrian forces in ongoing battles across the conflict-plagued Arab 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 foreign-backed terrorist groups across the country with the backing of Russian air cover.
- Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has called for closer bilateral cooperation with North Korea in the face of economic sanctions and punitive measures imposed by the United States against the two countries.
During a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Pak Myong-gu and his accompanying entourage in the Syrian capital city of Damascus last Wednesday, Mekdad pointed to the deeply-rooted relations between the two states in different economic, military and political arenas.
Syria’s mission to the United Nations vehemently condemns the economic sanctions targeting the country.
The senior Syrian official also stressed the need for stronger Damascus-Pyongyang interaction to confront unilateral economic measures slapped by the United States against their respective nations.
Mekdad censured US disrespect for its obligations under talks with North Korea over sanctions and denuclearisation.
US President Donald Trump and his team held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his entourage in the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi in February.
North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has said the US acted in ‘bad faith’ when he met US President Donald Trump in Vietnam.
The talks ended abruptly and a joint-signing ceremony was cancelled. Trump asserted that North Korea’s demand that the US lift economic sanctions in their entirety forced his team to walk away from reaching an agreement.
North Korean officials denied the accusations, arguing that Americans acted in ‘bad faith’.
Pak, for his part, said his country attaches great importance to its ties with Syria, and always stands by Syria and supports its stances at various international forums.
The North Korean official then strongly condemned US President Donald Trump’s recognition of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory, emphasising that Pyongyang considers the Golan Heights as occupied Syrian land.
A Syrian official says Damascus reserves the right to restore control over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by any means.
He also praised victories scored by Syrian army soldiers and the Syrian nation in the fight against Western-sponsored terrorism, noting that North Korea is eager to participate in the reconstruction of Syria.
Early last December, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho travelled to Syria, where he met with President Bashar al-Assad and other officials.
The two sides promised to ‘improve relations in all fields, particularly politics and economy’ and jointly ‘confront challenges and unjust sanctions’.
Syria’s president says independent countries are capable of restoring balance to the international arena through steadfastness.
Ri, not having directly named the United States during the talks, said North Korea and Syria face ‘the same enemy, which requires increased coordination to be confronted’.
