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Hamas demands Jordan clarify remarks

By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 21, 10:52 PM ET

DAMASCUS, Syria - The militant group Hamas demanded Saturday that Jordan clarify its stance on the Palestinian right of return after an Israeli daily reported that the Jordanian king spoke in favor of paying compensation to Palestinian refugees instead.

The report Friday in the Haaretz newspaper claimed King Abdullah II had told a visiting Israeli parliamentary delegation this week that he favored the payments over granting Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants the right to return to Israel, as Palestinians have long demanded. Israel objects to the right of return, saying such an influx would mean the end of Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

The report cited unidentified members of the Israeli lawmakers' delegation. A member of the Israeli delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the Jordanian monarch's comments were accurately reported by the daily.

Hamas, whose leader Khaled Mashaal is based in Syria, demanded an explanation from Amman because of the "seriousness" of the comments the paper had attributed to Abdullah.

In a statement, faxed to the AP in Damascus, Hamas said the right of return is "sacred" and no one has the authority to give it up.

Another Damascus-based radical Palestinian faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, denounced Abdullah's alleged comments, saying they reflected a "top alliance with the Zionist enemy."

Amjad Adayleh, head of information department at the Royal Palace in Amman, said the report caused "flagrant harm to Jordan and its leadership and jeopardized the serious effort to aid the Palestinian people."

Jordan, which hosts the largest number of Palestinian refugees in the Mideast — many of whom have Jordanian citizenship — "has the right to defend the rights of its citizens who are refugees," Adayleh said in a statement. "The compensation choice comes within the framework of solving the Palestinian refugee problem but won't be the only solution."

However, Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, said the Jordanian reaction was not a "clear stand acknowledging the Palestinians' right of return to their homeland along with compensation."

The reaction even raises "a lot of questions about the real (Jordanian) position toward the Palestinian refugees cause," Abu Marzouk told The AP.

Hamas demands Jordan clarify remarks (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070422/ap_on_re_mi_ea/syria_hamas;_ylt=Apij2TaQfMaUcc5SCxmszDwLewgF)