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11/25/2004:

"Barghouthi to Run for President - Fatah Official"

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Firebrand uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi has decided to run for Palestinian president from his Israeli jail cell, an official of his Fatah faction said on Thursday.

The candidacy could throw the Jan. 9 election wide open and pose a dramatic challenge to current front-runner Mahmoud Abbas, a former prime minister now caught in the glare of the charismatic Barghouthi's popular appeal with Palestinians.

Barghouthi's behind-bars bid to succeed the late Yasser Arafat as president could also bring international pressure on Israel to free the West Bank Fatah leader it jailed in June for five life terms over the killings of Israelis by militants.

``He has decided to run for president,'' the official, who said he had spoken with Barghouthi's lawyer, told Reuters. ``An official announcement will be made within 24 hours.''

The official said more consultations were needed on whether Barghouthi, 45, would run as the candidate of Fatah's ``young guard'' -- which could widen a rift with the faction's veteran leadership -- or as an independent.

Barghouthi's lawyer, Khader Shqeirat, declined to comment.

Despite the uncertainty over Barghouti's plans, Fatah's Revolutionary Council gave expected approval for the candidacy of Abbas, 69, three days after a Fatah panel nominated him in a race that has also drawn several lesser-known figures.

Abbas, who took over the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization after Arafat's death on Nov. 11, lacks Barghouthi's strong popular power base, but he is favored as a future peacemaker by Israel and the United States.

VOICE OF REVOLT

Barghouthi, 45, was the main voice of a revolt for an independent Palestinian state after peace negotiations collapsed in 2000 and has long been seen as a potential successor to Arafat.

Palestinian political analysts predicted Barghouthi stood a good chance of winning the ballot, drawing support from mainstream voters as well as from Islamists who oppose Abbas's call to end the uprising.

At his trial in Tel Aviv, Barghouthi said he was a political leader with no involvement in violence.

Passionate and articulate, the bearded and diminutive Barghouthi has also advocated peace with Israel, making his case for an end to occupation in the West Bank and Gaza in near-perfect Hebrew learned during previous jail stints.

Asked whether Israel might release Barghouthi if he was elected, a senior Israeli government source said: ``That would not change Mr Barghouthi's status as it is today.''

Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the prospect of Barghouthi's candidacy in an Israeli television interview during a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Monday, calling the issue complex.

``I am not sure what he is planning to do, but I think we will just have to wait and see. He is now in legal custody of the state of Israel, and that situation is not something that appears to be about to change,'' Powell told Channel One.

Treading where Powell did not go, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw laid a wreath on Thursday at Arafat's West Bank grave and said talks with new Palestinian leaders gave him optimism about a revival of Middle East peacemaking.

Straw was the first EU leader to stop by the tomb of the former guerrilla leader and president shunned by Israel and the United States.
nytimes.com/reuters

ooh. Another 'firebrand'. Like Chavez and Sadr. I think I like him. And Britain is practicing all kinds of one-upmanship on the US these days.