Abbas stresses unity of Palestinian representation in NAM summit

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday stressed that the unity of the Palestinian worldwide representation should be upheld, implicitly slamming Iran for reportedly inviting a Hamas official to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit it hosts in a few days. "We will not allow anybody in the world to play the game of tearing apart the Palestinian representation," Abbas said at a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Earlier today, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said that he had been in contact with the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the General Secretariat of NAM and had received confirmation that Hamas' Prime Minister Ismail Haneya was not invited to the movement's meeting in Teheran. On Saturday, Hamas announced that Haneya accepted an invitation from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the summit, prompting the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank to threaten to boycott the conference if Haneya goes there. Iran is the main backer of Hamas, which routed pro-Abbas forces and took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Meanwhile, Abbas dismissed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's accusation that the Palestinian president was conducting a campaign to illegalize Israel. Lieberman has been outspoken against Abbas this week, accusing him of practicing " diplomatic terrorism" and calling for replacing him via elections in the West Bank. "These are funny fabrications that have no place in the scientific or political dictionary," Abbas said of Lieberman's remarks. "We do not wage any political or diplomatic wars, but the Israelis should reconsider their policies."