August 29, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 30, 1424

AL QUDS: Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, began a fight for his political survival on Wednesday by asking the Palestinian parliament to debate the future of his leadership. His request opens the way to a possible vote of confidence which he is far from assured of winning in the increasingly hostile legislature.

Mr Abbas sought the debate, after an emergency meeting of his cabinet in Gaza, to ensure he keeps the support of his ministers now that his key achievement, the seven-week ceasefire, has collapsed under the weight of Israel’s “targeted assassinations” and Hamas’s suicide bombings. MPs will meet on Monday to hear him defend his first 100 days in office, and will then debate it. A confidence vote has not yet been scheduled.

An increasing number of MPs are agitating for his removal because, they say, he has failed to achieve anything tangible, despite many Palestinian concessions to Israel. A senior official said Mr Abbas believed it would be impossible for him to continue if he lost the support of the increasingly critical public or the parliament.

“In some ways I am surprised he is doing this because I think there is a danger he could lose,” the official said.

“But the ceasefire was the core of his strategy, and now it’s collapsed, and the constant undermining of him by Arafat and within Fatah has left him with little choice. He feels he has been hung out to dry by the Israelis and the Americans. He does not want to be blamed for causing a civil war among Palestinians.”

After days of wrangling with him over who should control the Palestinian security forces and whether they should be used to crack down on Hamas and other groups, Yasser Arafat, swung back behind his prime minister on Wednesday.

He voiced support for Mr Abbas’s attempt to revive the ceasefire, which collapsed last week after Israel killed a Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Abu Shanab, after the worst bus suicide bombing of the three years of intifada. He called on militant groups to rescue the road-map peace process from collapse.

“President Yasser Arafat calls upon all the Palestinian factions to reiterate their commitment to the truce to give a chance to international peace efforts to implement the road map which the Israeli government refuses to abide by,” his statement said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service