By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 05, 2005
Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority has no intention of honoring its commitment to disarm terrorist organizations operating out of territories under its control, PA security chief Rashid Abu Shabak said Wednesday.
"The Palestinian Authority won't touch the weapons of the resistance groups," he told reporters in Gaza City.
While every peace agreement signed over the past decade obligates the PA to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, the "Palestinians" regularly claim groups such as Hamas and Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades are part of the "resistance" to the Jewish presence on biblical lands, and not terrorists.
Nevertheless, the so-called "Oslo Accords" require the PA to put an end to such "resistance" in favor of diplomatic negotiations, and disarm any armed groups besides its own security forces, whether it sees them as terrorists or not.
Abbas has sought to bypass that stipulation by putting wanted terrorist gunmen on the PA payroll.
The PLO chief this week also banned any Palestinian Arabs who are not part of the security forces from publicly bearing arms, a move seen largely as a means to deflect increasing Western pressure.
In a meeting with businessmen and academics at his office in Ramallah Tuesday, Abbas accused Israel of being thirsty for "Palestinian" blood by continuing to insist that the PA combat terror.
"The Israelis want to see Palestinian blood being spilled, and this is completely unacceptable; we have red lines," The Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying.
Despite his own non-compliance with signed agreements, Abbas maintains Israel must surrender fully to current Arab demands.
"We won't accept anything less than a full [Israeli] withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders," he said.