PLO political department denies replacing al-Qaddoumi by Shaath

The Political department of the Palestine Liberation Organization PLO has denied news which indicated replacing the foreign affairs minister Nabil Shaath by the chairman of the department's chairman Farouk al-Qaddoumi in the post of the Palestinian authority representative at the Arab League.

The PLO political department which takes Tunisia as a headquarters expressed, in a statement, regret over these "groundless" news which noted the change in al-Qaddoumi's position.

On Tuesday, the office of the Palestinian foreign affairs minister said that the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas asked the Arab League to have Shaath as an official representative for the Palestinians to the meetings of the AL instead of Farouk al-Qaddoumi.

A source at the office of the Palestinian minister said that "the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas recently asked the Arab League to have Nabil Shaath to represent Palestine at the AL meetings." The statement of the PLO political department said "these fabricated news are damaging to the Palestinian issue." After the statement has recalled the historical role played by al-Qaddoumi beside the chairman of the Palestinian authority Yasser Arafat, it stressed that he (al-Qaddoumi) is a leader and a founder.

Al-Qaddoumi who has been living in Tunisia since several year is considered an opposition to the Palestinian prime minister who has been launching a power test with the Palestinian president Arafat to control the security authorities.