July 20, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1424

RAMALLAH, July 19: Yasser Arafat indicated he still wielded influence over militant Palestinian factions on Saturday by personally securing the release of a kidnapped local governor.

Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas meanwhile prepared a diplomatic offensive that would take him to Egypt, Jordan and the United States, desperate for concessions from Israel to bolster domestic support for his policy of moderation.

Ahead of his tour, Abbas is due on Sunday to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The kidnapped acting governor of the northern West Bank district of Jenin was freed after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat personally intervened and asked militants of an armed offshoot of his mainstream Fatah faction to release him.

“President Arafat personally telephoned us asking that Haidar Irsheed be released. He is now on his way to Ramallah to see the president,” said Zacharia Zubeidi, local head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who admitted the kidnapping.

Irsheed, 50, was dragged from his home, beaten up in the street and then abducted in broad daylight, witnesses said earlier.

Zubeidi had confirmed the kidnapping in a telephone call to AFP and accused Irsheed of “collaborating with Israel.”

Abbas, meanwhile, is under pressure to prove to Palestinians that his pragmatic approach and the ceasefire agreement he succeeded in extracting from militant groups is winning Israeli concessions.—AFP