August 4, 2007

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Former political adviser to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Bassam Abu Sharif, said on Saturday that former French President Jacques Chirac and three French doctors, who treated the late leader, are adamant that he was killed and know which poison killed him.

Abu Sharif also said that Chirac decided to keep the findings of the French doctors a secret, claiming that it was in the interests of the Palestinian population.

During a press conference in Ramallah, Abu Sharif renewed his accusations against Israel and said that they poisoned the former Palestinian leader. He added that the method of assassinating Arafat was the same as the one used to kill former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader, Wadie Haddad, in East Germany in 1978.

According to a recent publication Haddad was poisoned by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad who sent him biologically-infected chocolate which caused him to die within a month.

Abu Sharif said that the poison used in both cases prevent the body from producing red blood cells and that the affect of the poison does not appear for a long period after the death, making the assassins difficult to reveal and the crime harder to detect.

Arafat's former political adviser refused to go into detail regarding the poisoning, saying that this would enable those responsible to hide the evidence. "It is not wise to go into details," he said.

'Non-violent intifada'

In a different regard, during the press conference, Abu Sharif welcomed US President George Bush's call for an international conference on peace in the Middle East this autumn.

He also asserted that it is now imperative that the Palestinians conduct themselves in a non-violent way in order to establish an autonomous independent state for Palestinians and in order to use this movement in the coming negotiations.

Abu Sharif also said that Palestinians should be prepared to reject any solution imposed on them and urged them to begin a non-violent intifada (uprising), without it preventing them from achieving their goals.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is seeking to squander the current opportunity for peace and intends to take the various sides into a dialogue which will be fruitless, said Abu Sharif. He added that he expects a summit will be held between the Saudi monarch and President Bush, following the meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Olmert, which is due to be held on Monday.

Abu Sharif urged the Palestinian Authority to be clear in calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 Palestinian territories, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Internal feud

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar recently invited Abu Sharif to visit the Gaza Strip. Abu Sharif said that he is prohibited from entering Gaza by Israel and "I don't need an invitation to visit the strip, but I am under Israeli restrictions."

Abu Sharif said that in the ongoing conflict between the two leading Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, he maintains loyalty to Abbas "in the shadow of the powerlessness of the PLC [Palestinian Legislative Council]."

At the same time, Abu Sharif criticized the PA and factions for the assaults against journalists and implored the PA to assign decrees to protect the rights of journalists, especially Palestinians. Many media outlets operating within the Palestinian territories alleged that they became caught up in the recent internecine fighting between Fatah and Hamas and the two factions' exchange of provocation.