A spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization indicated here that recent acts such as the Pan Am airliner hijack in Karachi and the attack on the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul were part of a strategy aimed at uniting the PLO’s various dissident elements.
Abdaliah Franji, who represents the PLO in Bonn, told the West German News Agency that these assaults targeting the U.S. and Israel gave the PLO new room for maneuvering.
His remarks gave credence to intelligence reports from London and elsewhere that the PLO is making a major effort to unite rival splinter groups under the leadership of the mainstream El Fatah faction. To achieve this it must prove its “toughness.”
Franji said in an interview that the next step toward unity would be taken at an upcoming meeting of the Palestinian National Council, the so-called Palestinian parliament-in-exile. After that, a reconciliation with Syria would be attempted. A third and final step, he said, would be to gain wide recognition for the PLO as a participant in an international conference to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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