Palestinian president Abbas meets Berri and Salam in Beirut
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri met Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ain el-Tineh.
Abbas had arrived Wednesday in Beirut beginning a three-day visit to Lebanon, his first in seven years.
He met with President Joseph Aoun and the two presidents agreed that Palestinian factions won't use Lebanon as a launchpad for any attacks against Israel, and to remove weapons that aren't under the authority of the Lebanese state.
The 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon aren't under the control of the Lebanese state, and Palestinian factions in the camps have different types of weapons. Rival groups have clashed inside the camps in recent years, inflicting casualties and affecting nearby areas.
It wasn't immediately clear how the weapons would be removed from the camps, which are home to tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them descendants of families that fled to Lebanon after Israel was created in 1948.
Abbas' Fatah movement and the militant Hamas group are the main factions in the camps. Smaller groups, including some jihadi factions, also have a presence in the camps — mainly in Ein el-Hilweh, which is Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp and located near the southern port city of Sidon.
In late March, Israel intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon in response to Hamas allegedly firing rockets at northern Israel from southern Lebanon.
Shortly after the wave of airstrikes, the Lebanese government for the first time called out the Palestinian group and arrested nearly 10 suspects involved in the operation. Hamas was pressured by the military to turn in three of their militants from different refugee camps.
After his meeting with Abbas, Berri chatted with journalists about the upcoming municipal elections in south Lebanon. He said Israeli attacks are probable and that the preparations are going well.
Abbas later met Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Government Palace in Beirut.
Source: Naharnet
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