RAMALLAH (PIC)– The so-called senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erikat has resigned his post in the PLO’s negotiations department which he had been heading since 2003.
Erikat said on Saturday that he shouldered the responsibility for the leaked secret papers exposed by Al-Jazeera TV network on negotiations with Israel that revealed big concessions on the part of his negotiating team in the issues of Jerusalem refugees and others and thus tendered his resignation.
AFP quoted a Palestinian official who refused to be named as saying that Erikat’s resignation followed the investigation conducted by the Palestinian Authority into the issue of the leaked documents.
The committee of investigation presented its findings to the de facto president Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO’s executive committee he said adding that in light of results of the investigations Erikat tendered his resignation.
Commenting on the news Dr. Hassan Abu Hashish the head of the Palestinian government’s media office in Gaza said that Erikat’s resignation pointed to the state of failure accompanying the negotiations process.
He told the PIC that the failure was not for Erikat alone but for the entire trend he represented championing a change to the Palestinian rule led by Abbas which led the Palestinian people to an abyss.
It is about time for the Palestinian political spectrum to draft a new national leadership for the Palestinian people based on rights and constants Abu Hashish underlined.
For his part Fawzi Barhoum a Hamas spokesman said that Erikat’s resignation was not enough adding that all those involved in offering concessions as revealed by the leaked papers should be brought to account.
He demanded the formation of a national investigative committee to probe the role of each and every one involved in the corruption and conspiracies against the Palestinian people.
Barhoum hoping that Erikat’s resignation would signal a real and rooted change in the PA he urged the PA in Ramallah to declare failure of the negotiations and an end to the entire process.
