Fatah's Military Wing Denies Abbas Asked It To Disarm

TEL AVIV, Israel — Members of the Fatah Party's military wing yesterday denied claims by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, that he had asked the group to turn in their weapons. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said Mr. Abbas's officials instead have encouraged the organization to continue its "resistance" activities.

Mr. Abbas pledged during a summit with Prime Minister Olmert on Monday that he would immediately dismantle all West Bank militias not connected to the security forces of his Fatah Party. Mr. Abbas's deputies have been telling the international press that the members of the Brigades agreed to turn in their weapons in exchange for guarantees that Israel would not try to arrest or kill them.

"No one from Abbas's office ever asked us to disarm," the deputy commander of the Brigades in the northern West Bank, Nasser Abu Aziz, told The New York Sun. "We will never disarm until all issues are settled, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Jerusalem and the right of return for all Palestinian refugees."

A leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Ramallah, Abu Yousuf, told the Sun that Mr. Abbas's claims that the Brigades will disarm "are more of a message meant for the Israelis, the Americans, and the international community. No one [from Mr. Abbas's office] addressed a single member of the Brigades and asked us to turn in our weapons."