Abbas threatens Iran summit boycott over Hamas

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will boycott the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran if his Islamist rival Ismail Haniya of Hamas attends, a minister told AFP on Saturday. “President Abbas will not take part in the Non-Aligned summit if Haniya is present, no matter what form his attendance takes,” foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. A Hamas spokesman earlier on Saturday said Haniya would attend the August 30-31 conference in Tehran “in accordance with the invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” The statement from Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, did not say when Haniya would leave the Palestinian enclave for the conference or give any further details. In Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Rahmin Mehmanparast said Haniya had been invited to the gathering as a “special guest”. Abbas heads a rival West Bank-based administration, and said last month that he had accepted an invitation to attend the NAM summit and make his first visit to the Islamic republic. “At a time when (Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman is waging an aggressive political campaign, the invitation to Haniya to attend the NAM summit indicates that Tehran has joined the hostile Israeli chorus,” the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee said in a statement. “The aim of all this is to strike a blow against the Palestinian national struggle by encouraging division and giving him recognition and legitimacy,” the PLO statement added in reference to Iranian policies on Hamas. PDT