PLO officials to meet with deputy Syrian FM

Source : Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- A PLO delegation is scheduled to meet with the deputy foreign minister of Syria Faysal al-Miqdad in Damascus Monday, Palestine's envoy to Syria said.

The delegation, headed by senior official Zakaria al-Agha, arrived in the Syrian capital on Sunday in an effort to protect Palestinians in Syria from the conflict.

Palestinian ambassador to Syria Mahmoud al- Khalidi told Ma’an late Sunday that the group met with representatives of the PLO factions in Syria on their first day.

On Monday, they will meet with the deputy foreign minister to discuss the means of keeping th Palestinian refugee camps out of the ongoing fighting, he said.

Many Palestinians have fled Syria, or been internally displaced, as the fighting between th Syrian army and opposition forces spread into the camps.

In November, the PLO said that around 600 Palestinians had been killed in the Syrian conflict.

Syria hosts half a million Palestinian refugees, descendants of those admitted after the creatio of Israel in 1948.