PLO is "an illegal and illusory authority," PLO political chief Qaddoumi says

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Palestine Liberation Organization is as a "an illegal and illusory authority," the head of the PLO's political department, Farouq Qaddoumi, charged on Thursday. He also accused Palestinian President Abbas of misusing his presidential authorities.

At the same time, Qaddoumi called on the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Jordan to exert pressure on Fatah and Hamas in order to bring them together around one negotiations' table in order to produce a national accord in which future relations between the two movements would be clarified. However, Qaddoumi refused to mediate between President Mahmoud Abbas, from Fatah, and Khalid Mash'al, Hamas' politburo chief, because he does not wish to make things worse, he said.

He also accused the Palestinian Authority presidency of misusing the PLO departments. "The Preventive Security [security services considered loyal to Fatah] used to commit things which we were not satisfied with, especially after the appointment of [Muhammad] Dahlan as national security advisor," he said......

As for Fatah's role in the recent regrettable incidents in the Gaza Strip, he said, "There is a great part of Fatah who were not part of this crisis; we have distributed an internal memo advising our members not to commit any acts of revenge in the West Bank as we represent the majority of the people there."

Qaddoumi also accused President Abbas of misusing his presidential authorities. "There is a misuse of authority by the PA presidency," Qaddoumi charged. "We have always said that the [Palestinian] National Council should be elected by Palestinians in order to form a new Executive Committee for the PLO. This National Council should convene outside Palestine, but there are still manipulations and misuses of the authorities which will make the PLO lose its effect and respect."

In regard to the emergency government, he said, "this is something in the PA and for the territories."

"This cannot be generalized as this is only happening inside the territories," Qaddoumi warned. "The main reason for what happened is related and limited to the PA, which is an illegal and illusory authority," Qaddoumi charged. "The PA is the fruit of the Oslo agreements, which died when Rabin died." "