New Fatah leader open to peace talks, ready to fight
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
The new leader of the Palestinian nationalist Fatah movement, chosen to replace Yasser Arafat, said on Thursday he was open to peace negotiations with Israel but also ready to pursue armed struggle if they failed.
"Resistance is the path to arriving at a political settlement," Farouk Kaddoumi told Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station by telephone from Cairo.
"We are not saying we are capable of defeating the Israeli army. But this policy was set out by the PLO when the martyr, our brother Abu Ammar (Arafat), stood before the United Nations in 1974 and said 'I hold a rifle in one hand and an olive branch in the other. Don't knock the olive branch from my hand'...
"He meant: 'I'm ready for there to be political talks, but if they go astray then we will continue carrying the rifle', and that's been clear since 1974."
Kaddoumi challenged the emerging Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qureia by announcing Wednesday that he has no intention of renouncing his share in Yasser Arafat's political inheritance.
"Anyone who thinks that I have abdicated my authority is mistaken, and ought to think again," said Kaddoumi, who did not return to the territories in 1993 with the rest of the PLO leadership because he opposes the Oslo Accords.
His announcement caused consternation in Ramallah, since Kaddoumi, though he has never played an active role in the management of Arafat's Fatah faction, is known to have many supporters both on Fatah's Central Committee and among Fatah activists in the territories.
Since Arafat became ill, Kaddoumi has headed the camp that accuses Israel of poisoning him.
Hamas leader says Israel poisoned Arafat
Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal on Thursday morning accused Israel of killing Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
"I say, and do not hesitate, that I hold Israel responsible for the crime of the death of Arafat ... All reports by doctors in the last two weeks indicate he was poisoned," Mashal told Al Jazeera television by telephone.
On Tuesday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters that although the doctors' diagnosis had been inconclusive, "it rules out poisoning totally."
In 1997, two Mossad agents were arrested in Jordan after trying to poison Mashal. Israel provided an antidote and freed Hamas prisoners to get its men released.
"French and Arab doctors may not be able to find evidence as they could not find proof in my blood when I was poisoned but Israel was forced then to bring an antidote after two of its agents were held in Jordan," Mashal said.
"Israel by killing Arafat has killed the peace settlement and is sending a clear message to Palestinians and Arabs that this will be the fate of whoever rejects a settlement according to Israeli conditions."
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom dismissed the allegations that Israel had killed Arafat as "scandalous and false."
Shalom's comments were the first public statement by an Israeli official on rumors that have swirled through the Arab world since Arafat was hospitalized in France nearly two weeks ago.
Shalom angrily rejected the allegations at a news conference in Jerusalem with Italy's deputy premier, Gianfranco Fini.
"That's a scandalous and false allegation," Shalom told reporters.
haaretzdaily.com |
