Is this the end of Arafat?

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Get SOCIALIST ORGANISER each week delivered to your Please send me .... months' sub, I enclose £ To: Socialist Organiser, 28, Middle Lane, London N8 8PL AS fighting between PLO loyalists and Syrian-backed rebels reached into the city of Tripoli this week, there is every sign that Syrian President Assad is ignoring Soviet pressure and hell-bent on wiping out Yassir Arafat as PLO leader.

Strong signs that Assad's position is at odds with Soviet policy include the arrival in Damascus of a ministerial team from the 'non-aligned' movement, including a Cuban representative. Cuban foreign policy is complementary to that of the Kremlin, and certainly no Cuban minister would publicly urge a truce in Tripoli without the endorsement of the Moscow leaders.

But the pressure appears to be too little and far too late to save the beleaguered Arafat, as does the wave of increasingly bitter criticism of Assad from the Arab rulers of the Gulf states who have provided the bulk of the PLO's funding.

While Assad is ready to receive and to utilise Soviet armaments, he is determined to use. them for his own purposes and nothing else.

Thus Syrian fighters and missiles have remained idle during recent Israeli bombing raids on Iranian Shi'ite forces in the Bekaa valley: but the full weight of Syrian armour has been available in reserve for the PLO 'rebels' to pound Arafat's headquarters in the Baddawi refugee camp and now in Tripoli itself.

It appears that the Syrian objective is by force of arms to annex the leadership of the PLO and impose its own complete control over the north of Lebanon as part of a longer-term relationship with the Israeli forces and the USA.

Soviet leaders, hoping to find a way of regaining influence in the Middle East, have been dragged along half-willingly into making this possible.

US and Israeli strategists have been pondering the possibilities of countering the growing Syrian military might - but face considerable odds now that large quantities of Soviet weaponry have been delivered and readied for use in Syria, including missiles capable 01 striking targets inside Israel.

While opposing any imperialist offensive against Syria, the international workers' movement should clearly oppose the ruthless and cynical Syrian attempts to liquidate the PIO as an indepentlent political force. th e SB they were unable to destrı oy the regional or inter-factory co immittees which exist in many pl aces. The members of the TI KK (Temporary Co-ordinating Cr ommission) remain free. In se ›veral cities Radio Solidarnosc br oadcasts its programmes. A wi idespread, unceasing boycott of the regime's unions is continui! ng, in the first place this door by post!

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