Security forces from Syria’s de facto government arrested Talal Naji, the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), on 3 May, according to officials in the Palestinian resistance faction.
“Naji was asked … to report to one of the security branches and has not returned. Most likely he was arrested,” an unnamed PFLP official told AFP.
Other Palestinian officials said they contacted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and senior Hamas official Khaled Meshaal “to request their urgent intervention.”
Najj’s arrest comes two weeks after Damascus arrested Khaled Khaled, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) representative in Syria, and Abu Ali Yasser, the head of its Syrian organizational committee.
The arrests come after reports that the US has issued a list of conditions that Syrian authorities must fulfill in exchange for relief from sanctions that Washington imposed on former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
In late March, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said former Al-Qaeda and ISIS commanders who took control of Syria last December should “fully renounce and suppress terrorism, exclude foreign terrorist fighters from any official roles (and) prevent Iran and its proxies from exploiting Syrian territory.”
Days after the fall of Assad’s government, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported that the new government in Syria ordered Palestinian resistance groups to dissolve all military formations in the country.
The PFLP-GC was founded in 1968 after breaking away from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) due to ideological differences, focusing more on military actions than political activities. The group is headquartered in Damascus.
News of Najj’s arrest was reported hours after Israel launched an intense bombing campaign across Syria, hitting areas near Hama, Damascus, Daraa, and the coastal city of Latakia.
The Syrian General Security later released Naji after international condemnation.
A source close to Palestinian factions in Syria confirmedthat the Syrian General Security transferred Talal Naji, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, to his home hours after detaining him along with his driver and companions.