AL QUDS: The resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday hammered another nail in the coffin of a US-backed peace plan and increased the likelihood of a new surge of violence in the Middle East.

Diplomats and political analysts said the “road map” to peace had little chance of success, whether or not President Yasser Arafat accepted his moderate prime minister’s decision.

They said his departure would make it harder for any side to deny the road map faced major problems and would complicate efforts to halt a slide back into violence.

“I don’t think there will be a great impact on the peace process because there was no peace process anyway,” said Ali al-Jirbawi, a Palestinian professor of international relations at Bir Zeit university.

“Maybe it’s better now that things will come out in the open. It will be revealed that there was no implementation of the road map by Israel and there was no action by the United States to make Israel carry out the road map.”

Israel says the Palestinians have failed to carry out their obligations under the road map and blame them for the collapse of a truce which had been announced by Islamic militants.

“The truce was never alive, nor was the road map,” Israeli political analyst Gerald Steinberg said.

Frustrated by a power struggle with Arafat and what he regards as a lack of support from Israel and the United States, Abbas told parliament on Thursday to back him or sack him.

His decision to carry out his threat put Arafat in a tough position, and the president appeared to be keeping his options open before taking a final decision on whether to retain him .

Arafat has sought to undermine Abbas since appointing him in April under US pressure to share some of his powers and give a boost to peacemaking and democratic and economic reforms. Above all, he has refused to cede full control of the security forces which is vital to carrying out a pledge under the road map to rein in the Islamic militant groups.

Accepting the resignation of Abbas would herald a victory for Arafat in their power struggle and underline that he remains “relevant” in Palestinian politics despite US and Israeli attempts to isolate him.

Rejecting his resignation could force Arafat to accept at least some of Abbas’s demands, such as greater or full control of the security forces.

Rejecting the resignation could be a risky move. Israeli hawks have been demanding a military assault to pluck Arafat from his devastated headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah and exile him.

Antagonising Israel and the United States, who regard Abbas as the main hope for peacemaking and are likely to blame Arafat for his resignation, might provoke Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into approving an expulsion he has until now opposed.

“It might be in his interests to keep Abbas on, just as it is in the interests of Israel and the Americans,” said a Western diplomat. “In the end, it is hard to see who really gains if Abbas goes.”

Abbas’s departure could accelerate what appears to be an inexorable collapse into violence following the breakdown last month of a truce declared by Palestinian militant groups.

The Palestinians blamed Israel for the failure of the truce, saying Israeli leaders did little to ease the hardships of ordinary Palestinians during the truce and that the Israeli military continued killing and arresting militants. The EU drafted the road map with the United States, Russia and the United Nations.—Reuters