Sunday, November 18, 2007

Fatah to disarm "all armed groups"?

According to Ma'an News Agency:
Palestinian Interior Minister Abdur Razzaq Mahmoud Al-Yahya pledged on Sunday to disband all Palestinian military factions, including the Al-Aqsa Brigades, affiliated with his own ruling Fatah party.

Al-Yahya said that the last seven years of armed Intifada, or uprising, have been "disastrous" for the Palestinian situation.

Al-Yahya, himself a former commander of the Palestine Liberation Army, tolf the Kuwaiti Ar-Rai newspaper: "The security plan in the Palestinian territories is progressing in parallel steps in armament, training and restructuring the security headquarters and prisons. At the same time, Hamas' and other groups' weapons are being collected."

The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority is currently implementing a US-supported multimillion dollar security plan in the West Bank city of Nablus, that while reducing crime, has been seen by some as a political move to consolidate Fatah's authority in thw West Bank.

Al-Yahya dropped the suggestion that Hamas is plotting to take control of the West Bank as they did in the Gaza Strip in June: "The Palestinian security in the West Bank revealed cells affiliated to Hamas' Executive Force smuggling weapons and plotting to repeat the Gaza Strip coup in the West Bank."
Ramattan News Agency has the reaction:
Palestinian factions strongly denounced on Sunday the statements of the Palestinian Minister of Interior, Abdelrazeq Alyehia (West Bank), who declared commitment to disarm the Palestinian military wings.

Islamic Jihad leader, Nafez Azzam, said that if such statements were true, it would be a disaster for the Palestinian people and their sacrifices.

Azzam added, in a statement, that any decision could not end the resistance of our people, and it is impossible to end resistance and to collect resistance weapons.

Alyehia revealed Sunday that the Palestinian Authority promised Israel to disarm all Palestinian military wings.

He asserted that resistance has a clear understanding; meanwhile what happened last seven years was a disaster on the Palestinian people.

Hamas Spokesperson, Hammad Alriqib, said that Hamas will defend all Palestinian resisters. [...]
It is easy to believe that Fatah wants to consolidate its power and pursue its rivalry with Hamas. The idea that they are turning away from policies which have been "disastrous" and that they can take the rest of the Palestinians with them seems too good to be true. Hamas seems to emerge here as the patron and ally of all the "armed factions." This should prove interesting.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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