Palestinians accuse Jordan of sending officers to W. Bank

Jordan, which with Egypt has offered to train Palestinian security forces to take over areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip where Israel plans to end its occupation, denied the report that Jordanian army officers had secretly toured Jenin.

The Israel Defense Forces, however, on Saturday confirmed that Jordanian officers had in fact visited the West Bank town, but that the purpose of the visit was not military, but rather had to do with Jordan's assisting in setting up field hospitals in the city.

According to Palestinian sources, the Jordanian delegation - accompanied by British security personnel - arrived in the Jenin area to meet with wanted Palestinians and senior officials in Palestinian security bodies. The aim of the visit was finding ways to incorporate the militants in the Palestinian Authority, and convince them to lay down their arms.

According to the Jenin head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Arafat's Fatah movement, five Jordanian high-level officers visited the West Bank city on Friday as civilians.

"First they told me they were here to make a film, but then they told me they were touring the West Bank and other parts of the Arab world," Zakaria al-Zubaidi told Reuters. "They met with junior Palestinian security officials and were interviewing people after Friday prayers."

Zubaidi said he asked the officers to leave Jenin after discovering that their visit had not been coordinated with Arafat, whom Israel has tried to sideline by confining him to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"I told them we welcome the Arab presence to retrain our security forces, which Israel destroyed, but with conditions," he said.

"First they have to talk to our president, Yasser Arafat...and we are against retraining security forces that will work on aborting the intifada," Zubaidi added, referring to a Palestinian uprising that has raged since September 2000.

The Foreign Ministry in Amman, which on Thursday rejected rumors of a joint military patrol with Israel of the West Bank's Jordan Valley, on Saturday reiterated this denial. "There is no presence of Jordanian personnel in the West Bank," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.


Al-Aqsa Brigades threatens to quit Fatah
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened mutiny Saturday, accusing the main Palestinian faction of failing to include them in decision-making and defend them from Israeli crackdowns.

Fatah officials confirmed there was a crisis in the faction, adding that talks were underway.

"We are aware of the problems. The [Fatah] leadership has named several people to talk to the Brigades to try to solve the problem," said a senior official, who declined to be named.

The threat by the Brigades underscored growing instability in the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority as a new, militant generation in the faction confronts an old guard seen as impotent after 3-1/2 years of conflict with Israel.

"We are seriously considering withdrawing from Fatah because our leadership has so far neglected us and because of the deterioration in Fatah," Nayef Abu Sharkh, Brigades leader in the West Bank, told Reuters.

"We are a power to be reckoned with in Fatah," he said. "The leadership either changes its ways or we leave. We are not splitting from the group. We are withdrawing [support] only."

Fatah activists formed the Brigades after the start of the intifada in September 2000. The Brigades have often criticized the Fatah leadership, accusing it of cronyism and calling for new faction elections.

Members of the group have also carried out dozens of deadly attacks on Israeli targets on both sides of the Green Line border.

Dozens of Brigades men have sought refuge in Arafat's West Bank headquarters, only to be turned out and disavowed as the Palestinian leader came under international pressure.

"The leadership does not give us money and doesn't take care of the families of martyrs and those arrested while resisting occupation," Abu Sharkh said.

"They ignore us and are only in touch with us when they want us to adhere to a truce or to a political stance adopted by the leadership."

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