An Arab-TV program views claims that Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and former PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan accompliced in the «assassination» of the late PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
PLO crisis erupts after Abbas accused of helping kill Arafat. Farouk Kaddoumi, now 78, has been a leading figure in the PLO for decades and is still a senior member of Arafat’s mainstream Fatah party. But the PLO Executive Committee described his accusations as «hysterical» and added that he had «lost his political and psychological balance».
They announced plans to hold an immediate emergency meeting to discuss what to do about the controversy he has stirred. Meantime, the Palestinian Information Ministry on Wednesday banned the Al-Jazeera news program from operating in PA territory after it aired coverage of Kaddoumi’s charges.
«Apparently his advanced age is responsible for the remarks he made», Dahlan said. «He’s a man with a sick mind and character», agreed PLO official Hakam Balawi.
Kaddoumi is known as a hard-liner on making peace with Israel and had a falling out with Arafat when the PLO leader signed the Olso Accords in 1993. Kaddoumi decided to stay in exile at the group’s former head offices in Tunis over recent decades, presenting himself as the PLO’s «Foreign Minister» and as leader of the Fatah network outside the Palestinian territories.
This opened up a bitter rivalry with the ‘insiders’ – Fatah leaders who joined Arafat in setting up a self-rule authority within the West Bank and Gaza.
Source: Al Jazeera
My comment:
When Arafat had become a liability, did the PLO-leadership send him to the chemical slaughter house by poisoning their own leader?
Who will gain by the downfall of Abbas? I guess Syria and Iran. Sooner or later Hamas will take over the business in Ramallah.
