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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Fatah appoints Abbas overall head of movement |
| 2006-11-14 |
| A key Fatah body elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday as overall leader, officials said, in a bid to revitalise the movement hit by the election success earlier this year of rival group Hamas. Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, a key decision-making body within the faction, voted in the West Bank city of Ramallah in favour of appointing Abbas as overall commander. This is the same position that leader Yasser Arafat held before his death in 2004, officials said, placing Abbas at odds with members of the old guard. Farouk Kaddoumi, an exiled hardliner living in Tunis, was elected Fatah’s secretary general but not overall head of the faction after Arafat’s death, they added. “This (decision) strengthens Abu Mazen’s political and reform programme within Fatah,” said senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, referring to Abbas’s nickname. “This gives him powers in the Central Committee (the faction’s governing body) of which he is a member and strengthens Fatah,” he added. There was no immediate comment from Kaddoumi on the decision. Kaddoumi, considered pro-Syrian and co-founded Fatah with Arafat in 1965, rejected interim peace deals signed by Arafat with Israel in the 1990s. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 I made my own and it's not reading. I tested it over the Auburn/Georgia game and it works. “This (decision) strengthens Abu Mazen’s political and reform programme within Fatah,” said senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, Now he can off all the people he doesn't want in politics and has the blessing of the Fatah heads. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2006-11-14 12:11 |
| #1 The surprise meter I stole from Fred's box shortly after I started visiting the 'Burg is reading nil. I sure hope I didn't take one of the broken ones . . . |
| Posted by: The Doctor 2006-11-14 08:36 |