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Abbas confirms he cut short his trip to Cairo
A Palestinian who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in which an American passenger was killed said Sunday he was forced to cut short a working trip to Cairo last week because the United States was looking for him. "Cheezit! It's the feds!" The Iraqi-backed Palestine Liberation Front said last week that its leader Mohammed Abbas was formally invited to Cairo for talks among various Palestinian groups that were sponsored by Egyptian authorities and aimed at forging a united Palestinian stance in negotiations with Israel. I was mistaken when I reported this. I thought he was a member of the PFLP — that's what comes of using the translations on Arabic News... "We were unable to hold the talks in the desired manner because of the developments surrounding my presence in Cairo, which were the reason for cutting short the visit and leaving Cairo before achieving what was on the schedule," Abbas, who is better known by his nom de guerre Abul Abbas, told The Associated Press from an undisclosed location. He did not elaborate or say when he left Egypt. But it was in the dead of night. He tossed his suitcase over a wall and caught the first plane out of town. We've still mad about poor Klinghoffer... Egyptian government spokesman Nabil Osman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. Osman had said Friday he had "no information whatsoever" on a visit by Abbas to Egypt. "We officially did not notice when he arrived." Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-01-12 |
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