A rchive Date
[ 23-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/03/23/49589-ap.html
Arab leaders press President Yasser Arafat to end standoff over new cabinet
Keeps security post for himself
Wed, April 23, 2003
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - In a last-minute mediation mission, Arab leaders pressed President Yasser Arafat on
Wednesday to end a standoff with his prime minister-designate, Mahmoud Abbas, over the composition of the new Palestinian cabinet.
The crisis threatens to scuttle a U.S.-backed plan that holds out the promise of Palestinian independence within three years.
U.S. State Department officials sided with Abbas and warned that the dispute is hurting Palestinian statehood aspirations.
Abbas must present a list of ministers to Arafat by midnight Wednesday or step aside. He has the sole authority to form the cabinet, but in practice he needs Arafat's blessing. The cabinet requires the approval of parliament, where the ruling Fatah party, which is siding with Arafat in this showdown, commands a solid majority.
Ostensibly, Arafat and Abbas are at odds over whom to name security chief, but at the root of the conflict appears to be Arafat's refusal to relinquish some of his authority. Abbas, in turn, lost valuable support in Fatah by appointing to his cabinet several politicians tainted by corruption and not bringing in new faces.
International mediators have been watching the standoff closely, and appeared to be exerting the greatest pressure on Arafat, rather than Abbas.
In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, Arafat received phone calls from Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani and Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, a senior Palestinian official said.
Mubarak called twice, and also dispatched his intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, to the West Bank for hastily arranged talks with Arafat on Wednesday.
The Russian envoy to the Middle East, Andrei Vdovin, met with Arafat on Tuesday and called the Palestinian leader again later in the day. British Prime Minister Tony Blair also talked to Arafat by phone Tuesday, reportedly delivering a stern message that Abbas must be installed as prime minister.
Abbas has been in seclusion since a stormy meeting with Arafat on Saturday. He met with Vdovin on Tuesday, but his aides said he has not received calls from foreign leaders.
Vdovin said the Palestinians have two choices - either "form a new Palestinian cabinet, headed by Abu Mazen . . . or the situation will deteriorate as we have witnessed during the last two years."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday that it was up to the Palestinians, and not the United States, to choose their leader. However, Abbas should be free to select his cabinet, Boucher said.
"You don't have an empowered prime minister, you don't have a leadership that's capable of establishing the institutions of a state unless the leaders get to choose the members of their cabinet," Boucher said.
In the West Bank town of Jenin, meanwhile, Israeli troops raided two hospitals Wednesday and arrested two wanted Palestinians from the Islamic Jihad group being treated there, doctors said. In one raid, troops blew up the gate to the private Al Shifa Hospital in Jenin, hospital officials said.
The Israeli military had no comment.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, another Islamic Jihad member was seriously wounded by army fire in an arrest raid, Palestinian officials said. The man, Anas Shreiteh, was taken by helicopter to an Israeli hospital, Israel Army Radio said.
The radio said he was shot after opening fire on soldiers, who were not hurt.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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