October 2, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 5, 1424

AMMAN, Oct 1: The intelligence organs of an Arab country have foiled an attempt to assassinate leaders of the Palestinian hard-line movement, Hamas, currently living outside the Palestinian territories, Hamas Politburo member Mohammad Nazal told the Doha- based al-Jazeera satellite channel on Wednesday.

Nazal, who spoke live from Beirut, said he preferred not to divulge the name of the concerned Arab country “to avert it any embarrassment”, adding: “It is up to that Arab state to make the details public.”

Several Hamas leaders move between Syria and Lebanon, including the faction’s politburo chief Khalid Mishaal, who survived an assassination attempt by the Israeli intelligence organ, the Mossad, in Amman in 1997.

Mishaal’s bodyguards and people in the vicinity then managed to capture two Israeli agents who were later exchanged for Hamas’ jailed spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a deal brokered by the late Jordanian King Hussein.

“We regret that such acts of state terrorism take place before the world community without an word of condemnation. The US silence is tantamount to giving the green light to Israel to go ahead with its crimes,” Nazal said.

Nazal and Mishaal, who hold Jordanian passports, were among Hamas leaders deported from Jordan in 1998 in a crackdown then attributed to US pressure.—dpa