Ma'an – Palestinian Interior Minister Abdur Razzaq Mahmoud Al-Yahya pledged on Sunday to disband all Palestinian military factions, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with his own ruling Fatah party.Al-Yahya said that the last seven years of armed Intifada, or uprising, have been "disastrous" for the Palestinian situation. Al-Yahya, himself a former commander of the Palestine Liberation Army, tolf the Kuwaiti Ar-Rai newspaper: "The security plan in the Palestinian territories is progressing in parallel steps in armament, training and restructuring the security headquarters and prisons. At the same time, Hamas' and other groups' weapons are being collected."
The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority is currently implementing a US-supported multimillion dollar security plan in the West Bank city of Nablus, that while reducing crime, has been seen by some as a political move to consolidate Fatah's authority in the West Bank.
Al-Yahya dropped the suggestion that Hamas is plotting to take control of the West Bank as they did in the Gaza Strip in June: "The Palestinian security in the West Bank revealed cells affiliated to Hamas' Executive Force smuggling weapons and plotting to repeat the Gaza Strip coup in the West Bank."