Nabih Berri meets Ismail Haniyeh. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri received the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and his accompanying delegation in Ain al-Tineh on Monday. At the meeting, the parties discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region, in addition to the Lebanese-Palestinian relations.
Here’s what we know:
• In a statement, Haniyeh said that “the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas had the honor” to meet Berri, congratulating him on “Lebanon’s success in achieving the parliamentary elections,” and his return as speaker of Parliament.
• He also affirmed Hamas’ solidarity with the “brotherly” Lebanon in the face of Israeli attacks on the country’s gas and oil, affirming that Lebanon has “a complete right to its natural resources.”
• Both parties also discussed Israel’s assault on the Palestinians, including their numerous attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, their occupation of the West Bank, as well as their besiegement of Gaza and the living conditions of the people situated in that area since 1948. Haniyeh also brought up the dire living conditions that many of the Palestinian diaspora endure, “especially in the camps of Lebanon.”
• “Considering the living conditions of the Palestinians in the diaspora, including those in Lebanese camps, we reaffirm our adherence to the right of return and the rejection of resettlement and the alternative homeland,” said Haniyeh in a statement, adding that the decline in services provided by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, “due to a political root linked to the position of the United States of America and the position of the donor countries,” has negatively affected the living, health, educational and service conditions inside the camps.
• Haniyeh also mentioned in his statement the effort Western and even regional countries have exerted “in order to build alliances that work to integrate the Israeli entity into them,” stressing that “Arabs, Muslims and resistance forces can build a wall of resistance to prevent the continuation of this Zionist incursion into our real Arab and Islamic region.”