-
Source: Reuters -
Related
Al Qaeda's second-in-command urged Palestinians in the
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip not to succumb to Arab pressure for a
truce with Israel and vowed to support fighting against the Jewish
state.
The militant leader in a recording posted on the internet also
called on Muslims in Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia to press ahead
with fighting crusaders - a term used to denote the West - and
their agents.
"Israel's Arab aides are trying to impose a calm (truce) on the
people of Gaza to stop their jihad ... I tell our brothers and folk
in Gaza that jihad to liberate Palestine and all Islamic land
should not stop," Ayman al-Zawahri said.
Egypt has been negotiating a truce between Hamas, which controls
Gaza, and Israel following an Israeli offensive late in December in
the coastal strip to punish Hamas for firing rockets at Israeli
towns.
About 1,300 Palestinians were killed.
"I reaffirm to our brothers the fighters in Gaza and everywhere
that the mujahideen against crusaders in various battle zones are
willing to give their brothers in Gaza and everywhere training and
preparation," said Zawahri.
Without naming Hamas, which al Qaeda has often criticised for
dropping suicide bombings to play a political role, Zawahri advised
the Islamist group against blending with non-Islamist factions
under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, led by
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas's Fatah movement is the largest of 11 groups that constitute
the PLO, which in the early 1990s signed peace accords with Israel
that aim to establish a Palestinian state.
"Talk of fixing the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is
futile," said Zawahri.
"The PLO is a secular entity that does not uphold Islamic law
and it is the entity that dropped jihad from its covenant."
Hamas has said Egypt will host reconciliation talks between
Palestinian factions on Wednesday
The Egyptian militant leader also urged Somalis not to fall for a
secular constitution and said militants there will not drop their
weapons and fight the US-made government.
Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed earlier this month
selected the Western-educated son of a murdered former leader to be
prime minister in a power-sharing government intended to end civil
conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.
Zawahri praised what he described as an increasing jihadist
awakening in the Arabian Peninsula and called on Yemeni tribes to
follow the example of Afghan tribes in fighting US influence in the
central Asian country.
In his recording Zawahri also urged Afghans to rally around the
Taliban militant, al Qaeda's key ally in Afghanistan, to drive away
US-led forces.
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
