☫ PLO funded Iran opposition

Analysis  Revealed in Al Jazeera's leaked minutes

Palestinian Authority raised funds for Iran opposition

The approach was made by Iranians seeking to exploit old contacts with the PLO, but failed.

The Guardian, UK

It was 2009, and hundreds of Iranians fueled by our Western media's passion for democracy --a passion rather absent in Tunisia and Egypt due to some odd reason-- took to the streets embracing the slogan "No to Gaza."

Little did they know that as they chanted, the Palestinian Liberation Organizaton (PLO) of Mahmoud Abbas was raising tens of millions of dollars to contribute to their regime change aspirations in Tehran, in an attempt to prove itself useful to the interests of the Obama administration, and thus gain leverage at the negotiating table with the Tel-Aviv regime.


The Leaked Minutes

The bizarre revelation surfaced from the Palestinian-Israeli secret negotiation minutes, which were leaked in January of 2011 by the Qatari media outlet Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera). The talks, involving the financing of Iranian opposition, were conducted between the PLO chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, and the US General, James Jones. In one passage during October of 2009 conversations, Erekat is recorded as saying to the American General,

So where do we fit in all of this... in the bigger picture... Al Qaeda and Ahmadinejad… Where are we?… Ten days ago, we had to convince a Palestinian businessman to pay $50 million for Mousavi [Iranian opposition leader] to have a radio station. In the past we went into negotiations and we trusted people and they failed us. We want to help you.

The fact that Palestine, a nation surviving through the last decades thanks to foreign aid, lacks the such funds, can only mean that these arrived via either Tel-Aviv, Washington or Riyadh.


In the same October of 2009, Erekat held conversations with the US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in which he also referenced the Mahmoud Abbas' move that sought to appeal to the US administration (The Guardian),

Ahmadinejad is in Gaza and Lebanon. Pakistan is going failed. The Arab states are doing nothing. You know AM [Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas] had to convince a businessman to pay for Mousavi to have [a] radio station.

Response From The PLO 

Far from denying the contents of the leaked conversations, Erekat has only vowed to  accuse Al Jazeera of taking quotes out of context. The PLO has established a special committee to find out who turned their backs on them, serving as whistleblower for the Qatari network (Ma'an News Agency).

If investigation proves the documents were leaked by employees within the negotiations department, I will take full responsibility.

Beyond The Iranian Opposition 

Earlier the same year, Erekat said he had flown to the Iraqi Kurdistan, where the US and Israel are known to train and supply ethnic separatist terrorist groups against Iran and Turkey such as the PKK and MEK (PressTV). The PLO chief negotiator proudly stated on the occasion,

We are breaking the Arab behaviour of going to America and telling him what we need. Instead we are telling Obama that we can help... And Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan all need to tell Obama how they can help him. If other countries think they can use Hamas as a card we will do the same with them. We are not running a charity. Iran is playing games, they are using Hamas as a card.

Back In Tehran

 The Reformist opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has rushed to reject the claims that link him directly to US-and-Israeli-inspired drives for undermining the Islamic Republic. But many among his own camp long ago ceased to see him as a honest political player, and the Iranian society is already outraged at the new findings, viewing them as significant evidence to try Mohammad Khatami's protégé for treason.

Conservative and Reformist mafias which have sought to oust president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ever since he took office in 2005 are not to be neglected in the picture, and only time will tell if the balance between their massive economic influences against the push of the faithful Muslim youth, is to yield a sentence for Mousavi.

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