Op-ed: "Fatah leadership needs to retire because it is a mixture of failure and corruption"
Headline: “The opinion of a source from the [Persian] Gulf on [Barack] Obama and the Palestinian leadership”
Op-ed by Jihad Al-Khazen in his regular column “Eyes and Ears” in the London-based Al-Hayat.
“The success of the Saudi outlook on the future economy will benefit the entire region. [US President] Barack Obama has failed and wants to hold us responsible for his failure. The Palestinian leadership, the Fatah leadership, needs to retire because it is a mixture of failure and corruption. I was in Bahrain, and I had the opportunity to see a prominent senior figure from the [Persian] Gulf, whose friendship and confidence I enjoy. I travelled to his country, where we had a meeting that lasted an hour and 45 minutes, and I heard from him what I wrote in the last piece and in the coming pieces, and I returned to London in the morning…
We started to talk about the Palestinian situation and the senior figure from the Gulf said that the entire PA leadership needs to retire, because there is no confidence in it. He asked me if I had heard about the conduct of the PA towards the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I told him that I had heard, and I asked him to clarify. He said that the Emirates gave aid to the PA for four years at around $500 million a year, and that he personally made it a habit to wear a pin of the Palestinian keffiyeh as a sign of identification with the Palestinians.
He said that brother [former PA Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad came to Abu Dhabi, and said that he had decided to establish a non-governmental organization, and he chose senior figures in Abu Dhabi to give $10 million in aid to his organization.
They were surprised when the Palestinian Attorney General froze a transfer of $700,000 to Salam Fayyad’s organization and accused the Emirates of attempting to launder money through the Palestinian territories. The senior figure told me with anger discernible on his face: ‘Do you believe that the Emirates would choose to launder money through the Palestinian territories, and that the amount would be a mere $700,000?’ He told me that the accusation was rescinded, and the Attorney General admitted that [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas had ordered him to invent it, and that the Emirates currently are demanding that the Palestinian president publicly apologize, and they stopped all of the aid to the PA. The senior figure spoke with me about Mahmoud Abbas, his wife and children, but I choose not to publish [what he said], and I demand that the PA act so that the Palestinians will not lose the aid granted to them by the sons of Sheikh Zayed [bin Sultan Al Nahyan] (i.e., the founder of the UAE).”
Op-ed by Jihad Al-Khazen in his regular column “Eyes and Ears” in the London-based Al-Hayat.
“The success of the Saudi outlook on the future economy will benefit the entire region. [US President] Barack Obama has failed and wants to hold us responsible for his failure. The Palestinian leadership, the Fatah leadership, needs to retire because it is a mixture of failure and corruption. I was in Bahrain, and I had the opportunity to see a prominent senior figure from the [Persian] Gulf, whose friendship and confidence I enjoy. I travelled to his country, where we had a meeting that lasted an hour and 45 minutes, and I heard from him what I wrote in the last piece and in the coming pieces, and I returned to London in the morning…
We started to talk about the Palestinian situation and the senior figure from the Gulf said that the entire PA leadership needs to retire, because there is no confidence in it. He asked me if I had heard about the conduct of the PA towards the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I told him that I had heard, and I asked him to clarify. He said that the Emirates gave aid to the PA for four years at around $500 million a year, and that he personally made it a habit to wear a pin of the Palestinian keffiyeh as a sign of identification with the Palestinians.
He said that brother [former PA Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad came to Abu Dhabi, and said that he had decided to establish a non-governmental organization, and he chose senior figures in Abu Dhabi to give $10 million in aid to his organization.
They were surprised when the Palestinian Attorney General froze a transfer of $700,000 to Salam Fayyad’s organization and accused the Emirates of attempting to launder money through the Palestinian territories. The senior figure told me with anger discernible on his face: ‘Do you believe that the Emirates would choose to launder money through the Palestinian territories, and that the amount would be a mere $700,000?’ He told me that the accusation was rescinded, and the Attorney General admitted that [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas had ordered him to invent it, and that the Emirates currently are demanding that the Palestinian president publicly apologize, and they stopped all of the aid to the PA. The senior figure spoke with me about Mahmoud Abbas, his wife and children, but I choose not to publish [what he said], and I demand that the PA act so that the Palestinians will not lose the aid granted to them by the sons of Sheikh Zayed [bin Sultan Al Nahyan] (i.e., the founder of the UAE).”