TRIPOLI, Libya, June 15 (UPI) -- The widow of the late leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization wants Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to help resolve the ongoing Palestinian fighting.
Yasser Arafat's wife Suha Arafat called on Gadhafi to mediate between Hamas and Fatah to end the bloody fighting, according to an official Libyan statement Friday. She made her call during a ceremony naming a main square in the capital, Tripoli, after her husband.
Hamas militants Thursday overthrew the Fatah-dominated security and Palestinian Authority institutions in the Gaza Strip after a week of fighting that left dozens of people killed.
The Libyan statement quoted Suha Arafat as saying Gadhafi was "the only Arab leader who can be heard by all the Palestinian factions," capable of bringing them together in Libya because he enjoys all the parties' respect. She added that he managed to end several conflicts in Africa and could do the same with the intra-Palestinian bloodshed.
The late Palestinian leader's widow was in Libya attending various functions marking three years since the death of Yasser Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organization for decades until he died of a mysterious disease in a hospital in France.
Arafat was seen as having been instrumental in defusing inter-Palestinian tensions in the Palestinian territories.
