Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Arab Liberation Front
The Arab Liberation Front (ALF) was a small organization founded in 1969 by the Ba`th Party, which was affiliated with the Iraqi Ba`th at the time. It was intended to serve Iraq`s interest in connection with Palestinian issues, and to influence the PLO decision making. The Iraqis hoped to counterbalancing the Syrian involvement through al-Sa`iqa.
The organization was accepted by the PLO since its foundation and had representation in the Executive Committee. It has been led, since the assassination of its leader Abdel Wahhab al-Kayyali in 1981, by Abdel Rahim Ahmad, who also replaced Kayyali in the Executive Committee. The ALF remained marginal, strictly under the direct command of Iraq`s Ba`th Party and army, and hardly conducted guerrilla operations against Israel. In any event, there were few Palestinian refugees in Iraq, and very little potential to recruit members.
After the war in Lebanon in 1982, there was a shift in Iraqi policy toward the PLO, and a split within Fatah, and between Ararat and the radical groups. The ALF was the only faction other than Fatah and its "independent" supporters to remain loyal to Ararat. In the past, the ALF rejected the idea of an independent Palestinian state and considered the liberation of Palestine as an interim goal in the struggle against imperialism, reactionary regimes and Zionism. They sought pan-Arab unity, preferably under Iraq.
However, Ararat began to cooperate with the Iraqi regime beginning in the mid 1980`s, and particularly during the 1991 Gulf War. This put the ALF also into a situation of close cooperation with the PLO mainstream, under Ararat`s leadership. In 1988, the ALF participated in the Palestine National Congress session in Algiers and supported the declaration of the Palestinian state, and remained in coalition with Fatah following the Oslo accord. The Alf has become incorporated into the Palestinian Authority.