SANAA (AFP) — The Palestinian envoy to Yemen on Sunday denied a report by his embassy's own spokesman that the mission was closing in protest at "dual Palestinian representation," an apparent reference to a Hamas office.
"The embassy of the state of Palestine in the Republic of Yemen is open and functioning normally," Ahmed Al-Dik was quoted by Yemen's official Saba news agency as saying.
It also quoted him as calling Palestinian-Yemeni relations "solid and good."
On Saturday the embassy's spokesman Fayez Jawad told AFP, without elaborating, that the Palestinian mission in Sanaa was closing "in protest at the dual Palestinian representation in Yemen."
His statement appeared to be a move aimed at putting pressure on the Yemeni authorities to reduce the freedom enjoyed by a representative office of the Islamist militant movement Hamas.
Palestinians have been deeply divided since Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after a week of bloody street clashes in which it drove out Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
"Yemen is concerned about Palestinian unity, and there is no question of double diplomatic representation" of Palestinians, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi told AFP on Sunday.
"The Hamas office has existed for a long time and its activities are purely charity-related, while the embassy of Palestine is the official representative with which we deal," he said.
Kurbi added that this position had been stressed to the Palestinian ambassador on Saturday by the foreign ministry.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
