Abbas Claims Al-qaida is Operating in Gaza

The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that he believes al-Qaida has infiltrated the occupied territories and could further destabilize the region.

"We have indications about a presence of al-Qaida in Gaza and the West Bank. This is intelligence information. We have not yet reached the point of arrests," Mr. Abbas told Al Hayat, the London-based Arabic newspaper.

Later he added that Palestinian security forces had been given the task of heading off any extremist plots. "Our forces are trying with all available means to prevent them from arriving to carry out terrorist attacks in this region," he said.

Israel’s acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said he was not surprised by the remarks.

"We know of, and are monitoring, attempts by international terrorist elements to infiltrate areas close to us. One must not forget that Islamic Jihad and Hamas are also part of the global terrorist movement, and have always received support and assistance from international terrorist elements, thus the ability to discern a link between terrorist elements in the territories and international terrorism is neither surprising nor new," he said.

Israel has said it believes al-Qaida penetrated the Gaza strip through the Egyptian border during the upheaval around the Israeli pullout from the territory last year.

The leader of Hamas in the Palestinian parliament, Salah Bardawil, yesterday said his organization knew of no al-Qaida activity in the occupied territories.

Al-Qaida was responsible for three simultaneous suicide bombings in Amman, the capital of neighboring Jordan, last November, killing 63 people. The group said the intended targets were westerners and Israelis although most of the victims were Jordanian and Palestinian.

Mr. Abbas was asked about an offer by Iran to finance the Palestinian Authority if western donors withhold aid from a Hamas-led government. "If Iran wants to help, it is welcome. What is important is that the help will arrive to the Palestinian Authority. We won’t pay any price in exchange for the aid. We have our stances and policies, and whoever wants to support us on that basis, we welcome that and thank them," he said.

Mr. Abbas also said Hamas should be given time to adapt to demands for it to recognize Israel’s right to exist. He said: "Hamas hasn’t changed its language up to now, yet personally I believe that it will change its language. I prefer to wait."

Mr. Abbas is expected to visit Europe in about a fortnight as the EU seeks to strengthen his position after the Israeli government said he is now "irrelevant" following the Hamas election victory.

But in a move that will further complicate the distribution of foreign aid to the Palestinians, Mr. Abbas also said he would hand responsibility for most of the security forces, including the police and the army, to a Hamas-led government. Only the intelligence service would remain under his authority. "We’ll grant Hamas authority over the Palestinians’ national security because we need to have one body controlling the situation to ensure security. I don’t intend to deprive Hamas of what I demanded in the past from Yasser Arafat," he told al-Jazeera television.