TOMMORW: THE MEETING OF THE PLO CENTRAL COUNCIL
*** The meeting of the PLO Central Council tomorrow which will take place in the shadow of serious disagreements and a growing battle of succession worries the Israeli defense establishment. A senior Fatah source estimates that if the leadership of the PA is not decided in advance ahead of the "day after" Abu Mazen, the security situation in the West Bank could deteriorate into civil war.
*** Abbas Zaki, Member of the Fatah Central Committee:
"We are in the process of establishing a new national council within six months and we asked Egypt and Algeria to help us with this, because the PLO is the international and national authority, and is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and its goal in all forums around the world."
*** Resignations in the Democratic Front organization after disagreements over participation in PLO Central Council deliberations tomorrow
*** Hamas announcement ahead of the PLO Central Council tomorrow:
The convening of the Central Council without national consent indicates a suspicious agenda and external interventions that seek to impose arrangements on the Palestinian arena, and we call on our people and all its forces at home and abroad to reject these plans and deal with them with all our might.
*** The meeting of the PLO Central Council tomorrow in Ramallah:
One of the main issues that worries Palestinian factions and senior Fatah officials is the intention of the PA chairman to upgrade the status of his associate Hussein a-Sheikh to a senior position in the PLO that will give him a good starting position to become his successor in due course.
*** The PLO Central Council will convene tomorrow in Ramallah in the shadow of serious disagreements between the Fatah movement and the various PLO factions, as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad over the legality of the convention and Abu Mazen's intention to appoint his associates to key positions in the PLO.
Several factions, led by the Popular Front, will boycott the convention.
GAZA
*** Sources in the Gaza Strip: The demonstration in Rafah a few days ago against Iran and Hezbollah, in which pictures of Qassem Suleimani and Hassan Nasrallah were set on fire, is of Salafist elements ordered by Saudi Arabia. The demonstration is a response to the demonstrations in support of the Houthi rebels in Yemen for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
MIDDLE EAST NEWS
*** Commander of the US Army Central Command, General Frank Mackenzie:
U.S. forces did not kill al-Qurashi, but found him dead outside the building where he was hiding, because of the intensity of the explosion on the third floor after he blew himself up with an explosive device. We identified al-Qurashi through fingerprints and DNA analysis.
*** With all due respect to Benny Gantz's visit to Bahrain, we must stop this madness of grandeur! Normalization with the Gulf states is important but Israel cannot fulfill the role of the United States in the region. I do not see Israel helping in the fighting with the Gulf states if they are attacked by Iran and not the other way around, everything is just demonstrating muscle and the Iranians know this.
*** David Shenkar, former US Assistant Secretary of State under President Trump in an interview with Al-Hadad Channel:
The Biden administration appears to be on track to sign a bad deal with Iran that would damage the administration's partnership in the region.
*** Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey and Israel could work together to transfer natural gas from Israel to Europe, and that the two countries would discuss energy cooperation during talks next month.