MARWAN BARGHOUTI, the Palestinian leader jailed for life in an Israeli prison, re-emerged as a pivotal figure in Palestinian politics last night when senior Fatah officials said that he was preparing to run for the presidency from his cell.

The popular West Bank leader has informed Fatah officials through his lawyers that he will compete in the presidential election expected on January 9, according to Amin Maqboul, the secretary-general of the Fatah higher committee, one of the movement’s key institutions.

One of Barghouti’s lawyers, Jawad Boulous, who last visited him in prison on Tuesday, declined to comment on the statement except to say that he expected a “formal announcement” before Sunday.

It was unclear whether the 45-year-old Palestinian firebrand was preparing to announce his intention to stand as an independent or was perhaps trying to persuade Fatah’s Revolutionary Council to consider him as a candidate.

A senior Palestinian is expected to visit Barghouti today. “It is important that we listen to him in order to strengthen our unity, and we will respect his position whatever it is,” Qadura Fares, the minister who will see him, said.

Before the visit was announced, the Fatah council formally approved Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to succeed Yassir Arafat, who died two weeks ago. With Fatah’s backing Mr Abbas, 69, would get the finances and electoral machinery that would almost certainly guarantee him victory, although Barghouti’s entry into the fray could complicate matters and deepen the emerging power struggle.

Arafat’s death has exposed the jockeying for position that has been going on for months between would-be successors and kingmakers within Fatah, the oldest and by far the most powerful political movement within the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

While Hamas and Islamic Jihad are strong within Gaza, their rejectionist stance has left Fatah in control of most key Palestinian Authority and PLO positions.

But Fatah is itself riven along several faultlines, with factions divided by town, region, loyalty to powerful figures and ideology. The most evident source of friction is between the younger generation who grew up under Israeli rule and the older PLO veterans who spent most of their life in exile and are perceived to have tolerated corruption, cronyism and inefficiency since they returned with Arafat in 1994.

Barghouti is a standard- bearer for many young Fatah radicals who now see a rare chance to skip a generation. If he ran he would receive widespread support among the Fatah grassroots, and even from non-Fatah Palestinians who have long chafed under the current regime.

Militants from Fatah’s armed wing, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — with which Barghouti was closely linked before his incarceration — have threatened violence against the current leadership if it does not meet their demands. Only last week one such show of strength by the brigades in Gaza deteriorated into a shooting match that left Mr Abbas scurrying for cover and two of his guards dead.

A Barghouti candidacy would also be hugely symbolic, presenting the world with a figurehead languishing in an Israeli jail. However, he has many internal enemies who are jealous of his high profile and popularity.

Palestinian Authority security officials said last night that orders had gone out to its plethora of security forces reminding them in no uncertain terms that their loyalties lay with the current leadership.

Although Barghouti has a skilled and able PR team behind him, he also suffers the more immediate problem that he is languishing behind bars. An Israeli court sentenced him last May to five terms of life imprisonment, convicting him on murder charges stemming from the killings of 26 Israelis in attacks by Fatah-linked militants. Barghouti, who headed Fatah in the West Bank, denied the charges, saying that he was a political leader with no involvement in violence. He has called for an eventual peace agreement with Israel.

Asked this week whether Israel would consider releasing Barghouti if he ran for the presidency, Silvam Shalom, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said: “Barghouti was sentenced to life and he should stay there while he’s responsible for the killing, the murdering of so many Israelis.”

Imprisoned by Israel several times before for nationalist activism before the uprising, Barghouti used his jail time to learn near-perfect Hebrew. Many Israelis believe that his release is inevitable, particularly if he stands for the presidency.

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