A senior member of Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, publicly accused the United States of creating ISIS to advance an “infernal plot to dismantle the Arab nation, split it, and kill its spirit of solidarity.”

Abbas Zaki, who serves on Fatah’s Central Committee and has on several occasions delivered speeches on behalf of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, made the accusation during a January 10 interview with the Iraqi newspaper al-Mashriq. His comments were first picked up in English by the organization Palestinian Media Watch on Friday.

“The American plot began by targeting the heart of the Arab nation, by destroying Iraq and Syria, and weakening Egypt,” Zaki told the paper. “The strong Arab states did not receive support that would enable them to deal with Israel and stop its spread on Arab land….ISIS is an American product, necessary for the establishment of an Islamic state in order to justify the existence of a Jewish state, in which there is no place for Palestinians.”

Zaki also lamented that Palestinians did not do more to take advantage of relations with Iran, as Tehran is their “number one supporter.”

This is not the first time that Zaki claimed that the U.S. formed ISIS. He made the same charge while appearing on a Syrian television broadcast in June, adding that the U.S. is now “destroying itself by its own hand.”

Zaki has also drawn attention for comments he made about Israelis during a 2014 appearance on the PA’s official television channel. “These Israelis have no belief, no principles,” he said. “They are an advanced instrument of evil. They say, the Holocaust, and so on- fine, why are they doing this to us? Therefore, I believe that Allah will gather them so we can kill them. I am informing the murderer of his death.”

A recording of these comments with a translation by Palestinian Media Watch is embedded below.

The organization reported that Fatah’s official Facebook page posted an image equating Israel with ISIS a day after the deadly November 13 terror attacks in Paris. The following morning, the PA’s official newspaper, al-Hayat al-Jadida, ran an op-ed claiming that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad was behind the assaults.

[Photo: MEMRITVVideos / YouTube]