Yasser Arafat offered leading role in Jordan
By Peter Day The Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:57pm BST 27/09/2007
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/28/warafat128.xml

King Hussein of Jordan was prepared to make Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian
leader, his deputy prime minister, according to newly released secret
documents.

The proposal was made through an intermediary in 1974 as the king faced the
prospect of a Palestinian government in exile attempting to divide his
country.

The Jordanian West Bank territories - where most Palestinian refugees
lived - were occupied by Israel as a result of the Yom Kippur war in October
1973.

Mr Arafat, as leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, was
agitating for their return to form an independent state. He was backed by
Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

King Hussein feared the break-up of his kingdom, with territory on both
sides of the Jordan river being ceded to the Palestinians, and sought to woo
Arafat in 1974, according to files released yesterday at the National
Archives.

However, the proposal appears to have led nowhere and later that year the
king conceded the prospect of a separate Palestinian state.