PLO faction puts Arafat on the outer

JERUSALEM - The second biggest group in Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation has suspended its membership in protest against his arrest of its leader, piling more pressure on the Palestinian President.

The radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced its decision at a time Arafat faces demands from various Palestinian groups to resist Israeli and international demands to clamp down on militants behind a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks against the Jewish state.

The PFLP's politburo said it would not resume activities in the PLO's executive committee headed by Arafat until the Palestinian Authority freed its leader, Ahmed Saadat, who was arrested about a month ago. Arafat also heads the authority.

"This is a conditional step ... until Saadat is released," said Abdel-Rahim Mallouh, Saadat's deputy.

Hopes of a quick breakthrough to end 16 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed more than 1000 people remain slim, despite a series of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials in the past few days.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Palestinian officials in New York for nearly two hours to discuss ways to end the bloodshed, an aide to Peres said.

The meetings followed talks last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leaders, including parliamentary Speaker Ahmed Korei and Arafat's unofficial deputy, Mahmoud Abbas.

They were Sharon's first such talks since he was elected a year ago, and Israeli political sources said he would hold more talks with Palestinian leaders after meeting United States President George W. Bush in Washington this week.

Playing down suggestions of a breakthrough, one Israeli political source said: "Since the day of the meeting, until today, we don't see any results on the ground."

The PFLP, which killed Israel's Tourism Minister in October to avenge Israel's assassination of its own leader, is second in size only to Arafat's Fatah faction within the PLO.

Tensions have mounted between the Palestinian Authority and the PFLP, whose military wing last month threatened the lives of Palestinian security chiefs over Saadat's arrest.

The PLO executive is composed of delegates who represent Palestinians in the West Bank, in Gaza and in exile. It is more senior than the ruling interim Palestinian Authority, which has jurisdiction only over Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the latest violence, Israel launched a pre-dawn missile strike on a Palestinian naval base in Dir al-Balach village in the central Gaza Strip.

The Army said the attack was a response to two Palestinian attacks in Gaza in which a soldier was wounded.

The Army also said it had arrested four Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza. It identified one as a member of the Islamic militant group Hamas.



Arafat, addressing more than 15,000 Palestinians who rallied in the West Bank city of Nablus at the weekend to show their support for him, said that only "Israeli withdrawal from our lands" would end the friction.

- REUTERS

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