By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Palestinians will ask the UN Security Council to set up an international commission to investigate the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a senior Palestinian official said.
Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah faction, made the announcement Saturday after meeting in Damascus with representatives of the Syria-based radical Palestinian factions opposed to the PLO's peace accords with Israel. The meeting discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Arab developments.
The PLO will submit a request to the UN Security Council "to form an international investigating commission into the assassination of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat," Kaddoumi told reporters.
Kaddoumi said Arafat was poisoned by Israel "because he was a stumbling block to (Israeli) plans." He added that all Palestinian groups are united in holding Israel fully responsible for Arafat's death.
Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of the militant Palestinian Hamas group, who attended Saturday's meeting, had previously accused Israel of killing Arafat by poisoning him.