The spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a member of its political bureau, Maher al-Tahir, said yesterday that the Front does not plan to launch attacks against the United States, and that the statements attributed to him yesterday are “misinterpreted.”
Maher clarified that he informed the Syrian Vice President, Abdul-Halim Khaddam, during their meeting yesterday that he called on Arabs “to hit American interests by boycotting American goods and imposing an oil embargo on the United States due to Washington’s support for Israel.”
Tahir told Reuters in Damascus that Khaddam did not raise the issue of threatening the United States and that he himself brought up the issue during the 30-minute meeting.
The spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Richard Boucher, announced the day before yesterday from Washington that the U.S. administration had contacted the Syrian government and informed it that it holds Damascus “responsible for the safety and security of Americans in Syria.”
Boucher said, “We take seriously the call made by the spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine against American interests, and we call on the Syrian government to exercise restraint regarding groups that have a presence in Syrian territory.”
