Hamas Political Bureau member, and spokesman, Salah Bardawil stressed that Hamas does not interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab country. Bardawil was referring to PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General, Yasser Abed Rabbo’s statement, in which he said \"Hamas does not have the right to meddle in Arab country\'s internal affairs.” Bardawil added “there are thousands of Palestinians living in Syria, and Hamas is keen to protect them, and that is the motivation of Hamas first and foremost.” PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo was referring to comments made by Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Araby in Cairo on Friday, according to which he had asked Mashaal, the Damascus-based leader of Hamas, to ask the Syrian government to work to halt violence in the country. He criticized Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal’s mediation efforts in Syria, accusing him of interfering in the internal affairs of Syria. \"It is not his right to interfere in mediation in favor of any Arab regime, either Syria or another, Abed Rabbo told AFP. Our Palestinian politics has always been not to interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab state and not to allow anyone to interfere in our internal Palestinian affairs, he said. It wasn’t known whether Abed Rabbo was stating the official statement of PLO or not. Al-Araby said in a press conference in Cairo, Friday that Khaled Mashaal has played an important role in convincing the Syrian authorities to accept the mission of the Arab League observers, adding that Mashaal has played a major role to advise the Syrians to sign the document authorizing the Arab observer mission charged with assessing the situation in Syria.