U.A.E.: Sheikh Mohammed hails Palestinian struggle and condemns Israeli invasion.

General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Defence Minister, today hailed the struggle, sacrifices and heroism of the Palestinian people and their leadership. In an interview with the Sharjah-based Arabic daily Al Khaleej and the Dubai-based English daily Gulf News to be issued tomorrow, Sheikh Mohammed affirmed the commitment of the UAE and the Arab nation to extend full support and stand by the Palestinian people until they were able to practise their legitimate rights on their soil and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Sheikh Mohammed condemned latest Israeli military invasion of the Palestinian territories and its siege on the Palestinian leadership. "This is a new escapism from the due merits dictated by the Palestinian struggle and Arabs insistence on the peace strategy in accordance with the requirements of international justice and legitimacy and the spirit of the modern age,"

Sheikh Mohammed said. He added that the resistance and determination of the Palestinian people to hold on to their rights had obliterated the theory of security and military solution. Sheikh Mohammed said that the fairness of the Palestinian struggle was gaining clarity by the day and had exposed the policies based on double standards in measuring peoples struggle for freedom and independence. "The Palestinian people are practising their legitimate right for resistance like all people that have been a victim of occupation and appropriation of self-determination.

"The kind of suffering that the Palestinian people have been subjected to by Israel has no equal in history," Sheikh Mohammed said, stressing that the legitimate Palestinian struggle cannot be described as terrorism as a result of some violent actions, which had come out of desperation after the peace process ran into a dead end due to the hideous Israeli policies and practices. Sheikh Mohammed said that occupation was the highest form of violence, warning that if Israel didn't pull out of the Palestinian territories, violence would increase and Israel would ...