Press TV has interviewed Paul Sheldon Foote, a professor at the California State University, about a recent meeting between the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the ringleader of anti-Iran terrorist group, Mujahedin Khalq Organization, in the French capital of Paris late Saturday.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What do you make of this meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and Maryam Rajavi?
Foote: It’s an outrageous blow to those of us who support both Iran and the Palestinians and the people of Gaza. Here you have a traitor who many call the quisling of Palestine. And for the people don’t know what quisling is, quisling was the Norwegian who was executed for having worked with the Nazis during World War II. But here’s a man who supports fully the leadership in Israel who is supporting the evil aims of the leaders of Saudi Arabia who have been funding the Mujahedin Khalq communist terrorists and who are doing anything they can to fund terrorism in the region. And at the same time the Palestinians have been asking people such as myself to support their cause. Well, it’s not possible for us to support the cause of someone who supports communist terrorists. They’ve got to pick their sides.
Press TV: What kind of a message is Mahmoud Abbas trying to send by setting up this meeting with the leader of the MKO?
Foote: He’s trying to show that he supports entirely the agenda of the Zionists and the neo-conservatives and the neo-Trotskyites that he will represent their interests in Palestine. He’s not even elected anymore. He is claiming to be a leader once in last election of Palestine. Who elected him? Why doesn’t anyone speak for him? Why does he speak for anyone in Palestine?
Press TV: Of course as we just mentioned Palestinian resistance groups have denounced this meeting between Abbas and the leader of the Mujahidin Khalq Organization. What does that mean basically on the ground when it comes to that axis of resistance when it comes to standing up against Israeli oppression on Palestinian land?
Foote: Well, there are many people in Gaza and in Palestine who suffer very much from the Israeli occupation. Even though Mahmoud Abbas isn’t suffering. He’s profiting from it. Everyone else in Palestine and Gaza should be definitely protesting him and getting him out of the country.