The leader of a Syrian-based radical Palestinian group is planning to assassinate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah claimed on Saturday.

The claim followed statements made by Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, General Command, in which he strongly denounced Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, for signing the Oslo Accords with Israel.

“Ahmed Jibril is a hired agent,” Fatah said in a statement released in Ramallah. “He is operating on instructions from his handlers in the region who seek to eliminate President Abbas.”

The statement did not name the “handlers.”

However, a Fatah official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the statement referred to Syria and Iran.

According to Fatah, Jibril’s attacks on the PA leadership came after he “failed to exploit ‘Land Day’ to achieve political gains.”

Fatah accused Jibril of planning to dispatch Palestinians to the borders of Israel as part of the Global March to Jerusalem, an event that was organized last Friday by a coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations around the world.

“Ahmed Jibril is a merchant for Palestinian and Arab blood,” Fatah charged. “He is desperately trying to appease outside parties in an attempt to destroy the political achievements of our people and their wise leadership.”

Jibril belongs to a group of Syrian-based terror organizations that are strongly opposed to peace with Israel.

His close ties with the Syrian authorities have won him many enemies among the Palestinians, especially the PA leadership.

The PA recently accused Jibril’s supporters of killing 14 Palestinians in a refugee camp near the Syrian capital of Damascus. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 04/01/12)