Arafat searching for new PM

2003-09-07 11:54

Ramallah, West Bank - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was searching for a new prime minister on Sunday after the resignation of Mahmud Abbas as Israel braced itself for Hamas reprisals for an assassination bid against its spiritual leader.

Arafat was due to chair a meeting of the central committee of his Fatah movement at his offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah in the morning and then convene a gathering of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation to mull over the appointment.

Abbas and Arafat have not met since the moderate premier submitted his bombshell resignation on Saturday, blaming a "harsh and dangerous domestic incitement" against the government and a lack of support for its actions.

Palestinian sources touted parliament speaker Ahmad Qorei, a veteran of the Oslo peace accords, and finance minister Salam Fayad as two possible successors to Abbas.

However Saeb Erakat, a close ally of Arafat who was reappointed negotiations minister by Abbas on Thursday, said Abbas could still remain in his post.

"President Arafat may accept the resignation of Mahmud Abbas and then ask Mr Abbas to form the new cabinet," Erakat told CNN. "This is an option and I'm not saying that this is an unlikely option, I think this is a strong option."

Abbas held talks into the early hours here with senior colleagues including his foreign minister Nabil Shaath and information minister Nabil Amr.

He has been asked to head up a caretaker government for the next five weeks after which he would either be asked to form a new government or another premier would be appointed in his place.

Arafat's decision to accept Abbas' resignation prompted Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to renew calls on Sunday for the veteran leader's expulsion from the West Bank.

"The expulsion of Arafat is, as I have already said, the inevitable result of what he has done to provoke the fall of Mahmud Abbas," Shalom told public radio.

Abbas' resignation was proof of Arafat's refusal "to allow any political process to develop," he added.

Shaath however warned that such a move would be "disastrous".

The Israeli government has long accused Arafat of undermining Abbas and the peace process. Its forces have confined the 74-year-old to his headquarters in Ramallah for the last 20 months.

Abbas' resignation delivered another blow to the already floundering Middle East peace process. Talks between the two sides have been frozen since the August 19 suicide bus bombing by Hamas in Jerusalem which killed 21 passengers.

Assassination attempt

The Israeli military has carried out a series of attacks against Hamas targets since then, including an assassination attempt against the movement's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin on Saturday afternoon.

Israeli police were placed on a state of alert Sunday amid fears of reprisal attacks by Hamas.

Police and security service reinforcements were deployed at "sensitive" points in Jerusalem, notably at bus stops, and boosted patrols and identity checks at entrances to main towns.

The clampdown of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was also reinforced and no Palestinians were allowed across the Erez crossing between Gaza and the Jewish state, police sources said.

Former prime minister Shimon Peres criticised the attack on Yassin as a move which was likely to escalate the situation.

But a source close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Sunday that Israel planned to wipe out Hamas entirely.

"We intend to liquidate all of Hamas, without any distinction between the political and military branches of this terrorist organisation," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Israel will strike everywhere against anyone implicated in attacks and none of the terrorists should think they are immune," he added.

The attack on Sheikh Yassin was widely condemned by governments across the region.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher denounced the attack as "a real threat for the peace process and unacceptable whatever its motives" while Israel's arch enemy Iran accused it of "government-sponsored terrorism".

In a bid to defuse try the crisis, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was to meet on Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, and Arab League chief Amr Mussa in Cairo.

- AFP