Abbas spokesperson to US: ‘Dahlan is treacherous'

Nabil Shaath, the representative of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Fatah’s dismissed leader, Mohammed Dahlan, “played a treacherous role, and he is the engineer of the UAE and Bahrain normalisation agreements with the Israeli occupation.”

This came in an exclusive statement with Arabi21 after US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, hinted that Washington might help Dahlan become the next leader of the PA in its effort to replace Abbas.

“These statements reveal more of the US’ colonial endeavour in support of the Israeli settlement, to impose its control over the Palestinian decision-making circle and manipulate Arab governments at the same time,” Shaath said.

He added: “This attempt to impose total hegemony has become clear seeing the recent normalisation of the Emirates and Bahrain with Israel, which was orchestrated via a US-Zionist colonial policy.”

READ: Normalisation with Israel and the Palestinian response

“The US administration cannot tolerate the presence of a resilient national Arab leader, but rather attempts to pressure and threaten him,” Shaath said of the US’ dealing with Abbas.

“Dahlan represents nothing but a phenomenon that is rejected by the Palestinian people.”

Fifty-seven-year-old Dahlan was expelled from Fatah’s ruling body in 2011 on allegations of plotting to overthrow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and has been living in exile in the UAE since 2012.

He was the former head of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Force in the Gaza Strip.

In December, Turkey added Dahlan to its most wanted terrorist list, with a $1.7 million bounty on his head, due to his alleged involvement in perpetrating the attempted military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government on 15 July 2016, in cooperation with followers of the exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who remains in the US.