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Abbas removes Kaddoumi
Palestinian sources stressed that the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas appointed his foreign minister Nabil Shaath as an official representative to the meetings of the Arab League on Palestine instead of the chairman of the PLO political department Farouk Kaddoumi. A member at the revolutionary council of the Palestinian national liberation movement ( Fatah ) said that organizational and political difference erupted inside the movement because of this decision.
Sounds like they are unhappy. Gunfire to follow.
The Fatah official said in a statement in Amman that Abbas sent an official "message" to the AL secretary general Amr Moussa a short time before notifying him that the "Foreign affairs minister in the Palestinian government Nabil Shaath is as from now assigned to represent the Palestinian side at the AL conferences and the meetings of the Arab foreign ministers."
I’m sure somebody here knows what this means.

It looks to me like Abbas is trying to take control of at least a part of the government. I'd guess that Yasser still has the strength to stop him, in the long run — but it's a good sign that Abbas thinks he can try. I wonder if it's too late, though. If he'd been able to replace Yasser's people with his own six months ago, the IAF might not be banging people today...

Posted by: Steve 2003-08-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=17966