- Title: LEBANON: INTERVIEW WITH PALESTINIAN PFLP LEADER GEORGE HABASH.
- Date: 30th July 1999
- Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JULY 29, 1999) (RTN - ACCESS ALL) 1. MCU: (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) PFLP LEADER GEORGE HABASH: "Meeting Arafat is possible only when he admits that the cancellation of the PLO charter was a mistake and when he is ready to correct this mistake and return to the charter. This is what the Palestinian people expect him to do" (Editors please note: this is paraphrase, not translation) 1.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 14th August 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA59DHQF7BKQ05A25CQRLTFLWJ1
- Story Text: Palestinian PFLP leader George Habash says will not
meet PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat unless the latter re-instates
the PLO charter clauses which call for the destruction of
Israel.
Marxist Palestinian leader George Habash said on
Thursday (July 30) a meeting with President Yasser Arafat
would be impossible unless Arafat re-instates the PLO charter
clauses which call for the destruction of Israel.
"A meeting between us is possible only when Arafat says
that the cancellation of the PLO charter was a mistake and
when he is ready to correct his mistake by returning to the
charter," said Habash, head of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
"When Arafat does that I will be very happy to meet him.
Otherwise he cannot even dream of saying he had lured me to
his policies.(I) will not give a cover for Arafat's
policies," Habash, a fiery symbol of Arab nationalism, told
Reuters.
Earlier this year, the Palestinian parliament cancelled
PLO charter clauses that call for the destruction of the
Jewish
state in a session attended by U.S.President Bill Clinton.
Habash, now a white-haired 72-year-old, established his
organisation in 1968 and built it into a powerhouse second
only to Arafat's loyal arm Fatah.He espoused Marxist-Leninist
dogma of "revolutionary violence."
The PFLP drew international attention to the Palestinian
struggle by hijacking airliners in the late 1960's and early
1970s.Habash split with Arafat when the Fatah leader signed
the Oslo accords in 1993 paving for peace with Israel.
His organisation has now decided to resume contacts with
the Palestinian Authority upon the request of Arafat through
high level negotiations in Cairo next month unlikely to
include Habash.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None