A spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed a claim by Israeli researchers that he served as a Soviet KGB agent in Syria over three decades ago, AFP reported Thursday. The PA president's spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told AFP that Wednesday's reported finding was part of a 'smear campaign' to impede on Russian-proposed peace efforts between the Israelis and Palestinians. Israel's public Channel 1 reported on Wednesday night that two Hebrew University researchers had obtained a trove of KGB archives that included a list that named Abbas as a Soviet agent operating in 1983 in Damascus. However on Thursday, Abbas's spokesperson charged that the reported discovery 'falls under the framework of Israeli absurdities which we have got used to.'
