WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A leaked document has revealed that Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told investigators that a Palestinian served the Zionist regime in killing the late PA, PLO and Fatah President Yasser Arafat, Safa has reported.
Shtayyeh was the director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Construction (PECDAR) at the time. He said that the Palestinian figure who was interested in killing Arafat “was serving Israel”.
The document included accounts of Palestinian officials who were close to Arafat, who died in November 2004. Many believe that he was poisoned.
Senior PA Security Commander Tawfiq Al-Tirawi headed a committee to investigate Arafat’s death in 2010. In 2015, he declared that Arafat’s killer had been identified.
Last week it was reported that Mahmoud Abbas “refused to help lift the Israeli siege imposed on his predecessor Yasser Arafat due to the latter’s alleged support for the Aqsa Intifada (2000-2005).”
Al-Tirawi confirmed then that the details emerged from leaked documents linked to his investigation.
Shtayyeh gave his account to investigators in May 2014, saying that Arafat lost international Arab and Palestinian cover, and came under full siege by the occupation regime.
“When all cover is removed and no one is visiting Arafat, this means that a message must have been delivered,” said Shtayyeh. He recognized that the officials around Arafat “were bad” and “Arafat was afraid that his power would be withdrawn.”
When he was asked by the investigator if he was on the side of Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, he said, “My position was clear in relation to the distribution of power.”
Arafat was poisoned in 2004 by a dose of polonium, Swiss investigators concluded. Investigations have not announced who administered the poison, and how.