jerusalem | Five weeks before Palestinian Authority presidential elections, front-runner Mahmoud Abbas took a campaign swing — through the Arab world.
Along with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, Abbas met heads of state and Palestinian refugees, working hard to establish himself as the inevitable new Palestinian leader.
It was worth the trip: Abbas received blessings from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Jordan’s King Abdullah.
He also got backing from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, in addition to a warm reception from leaders of refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria.
In Kuwait, Abbas apologized for Palestinian support for Iraq after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Kuwait’s prime minister, Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, though, said an apology was not necessary and that the matter of the Palestinian leadership’s support for Saddam “has been closed.”
In visiting Damascus, the first such visit by a top Palestinian political leader in years, Abbas had three major objectives:
• To gain political credibility in the Arab world despite his image as a moderate backed by Israel and the United States.
• To legitimize himself among Palestinian terrorist groups — such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — that maintain bases in Damascus.
• To blunt the potential threat these groups could pose to stability in the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas achieved his objectives, at least in part.
Although Syria’s Assad is looking to pursue a moderate course in an effort to placate the United States — which is demanding that Syria stop supporting terrorist groups and pull its troops from Lebanon — Abbas left Damascus puzzled.
Despite his warm reception, Abbas feels Syria has not exerted sufficient pressure on Palestinian terror groups based in Damascus to come together with their counterparts in the territories so that Fatah, the dominant Palestinian political movement, can negotiate with one partner, rather than having to maneuver between Gaza and Damascus.
Assad is unlikely to take drastic measures against the Palestinian groups in Damascus because their presence allows him to influence events in the territories and in possible negotiations with Israel.
One idea raised this past week was the establishment of a Palestinian embassy in Damascus that would include officials from the various Palestinian organizations.
In another significant development, Abbas got the support of longtime PLO rival Farouk Kaddoumi, the newly elected chairman of the Fatah Party and a strong opponent of the peace process.
Further, Abbas and Qureia were warmly received in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, where residents tend to take a hard line on any Palestinian concessions to Israel.
Abbas is one of the founding members of Fatah. He was a signatory to the 1993 Declaration of Principles that launched the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, and for decades was PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s right-hand man.
Following Arafat’s death on Nov. 11, Abbas was selected PLO chairman.
Abbas has said he wants “an agreed-upon peace,” and earlier this week he called for an end to violence against Israelis.
“Our uprising should be social and popular in nature,” Abbas told the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
“Resorting to arms has been harmful” to Palestinians, he said. “This should be stopped and calm restored.”
Having mended relations with Syria and Kuwait — relations that Arafat had spoiled — Abbas is now free to deal with the local scene. He will need to perform a political high-wire act in order to keep the Americans and Israelis satisfied without alienating the opposition.