PA official denies leaked recordings in which he insults president

Senior Palestinian Authority (PA), PLO and Fatah official, Hussein Al-Sheikh, yesterday denied leaked recordings in which he insulted PA, PLO and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Speaking to the news site, Al-Sheikh said: “These audio recordings are fabricated and are untrue.”

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that Al-Sheikh met with Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah following the emergence of the recordings.

“I visited President Abbas, who is my guide and my leader,” he said, adding: “I am proud of my relationship with his highness. My relationship with him is strong and I am proud that I am working with him.”

He said that these recordings aimed at “weakening the Palestinian social fabric and the Palestinian national relations, but we are much bigger than this,” stressing that Fatah “is immune” from such plots.

In the recordings, Al-Sheikh is identified as saying that Abbas “is intentionally causing chaos” in the occupied West Bank, and attacking PA Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj, Abbas’s close aide.

“I am telling you that Abu Mazen [Abbas] is a partner in the chaos and he has an interest in it,” he said. “I am sorry to tell you this.”

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