Arafat backs Qorei as PM: Fatah, PLO support decision
RAMALLAH (West Bank), Sept 7: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asked parliament speaker Ahmad Qorei on Sunday to become his new prime minister, Arafat’s senior advisor said.
“President Arafat has officially asked Abu Ala (Qorei) and the central committee of Fatah and executive committee of the PLO agreed,” Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Ahmad Qorei was the unanimous choice of delegates attending a Fatah central committee meeting chaired by Arafat at his headquarters here.
“The candidature of Abu Ala (Qorei) was unanimously recommended,” central committee member Abbas Zaki told AFP after the meeting.
Mr Arafat himself proposed Mr Qorei to succeed Abbas, who resigned on Saturday, and the committee members followed his advice, a senior Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was to meet later on Sunday to discuss the replacement for Abbas. A formal decision on the succession would be made within the next 48 hours, Mr Zaki added.
Sources within the Palestinian Legislative Council, or parliament, said that Mr Qorei was mulling the prospect of becoming premier.
The next step is for Abu Ala to accept the offer. He has not yet said whether he wants the post made vacant when Mahmoud Abbas quit as premier on Saturday.
Senior Palestinians had earlier said it was highly unlikely that Mr Abbas could again work with Arafat, even though he did not rule out such an idea.
“It will be very difficult for Abu Mazen (Abbas) to come back,” foreign minister Nabil Shaath told reporters. “He (Qorei) is a very strong candidate to be prime minister.”
Mr Abbas himself, who has been asked to head up a caretaker government for the next five weeks, remained equivocal about his intentions.
Asked by journalists if he would accept an offer to form a new government, Mr Abbas said: “It is premature to say at this stage.”
Israel had warned in the aftermath of Mr Abbas’ resignation that it would “not accept” the appointment of an Arafat loyalist as premier.
“Israel will not accept a situation in which the control of the Palestinian Authority would fall back into Yasser Arafat’s hands or one of his partisans’,” a statement said.
Mr Arafat’s decision to accept Mr 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.
Mr Abbas’ resignation was proof of Arafat’s refusal “to allow any political process to develop”, he added.
Mr 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.
Mr Abbas’ resignation delivered another blow to the already foundering 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.
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 on 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 on 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 current premier Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying that Hamas’ leaders were “dead men” while a senior official said 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.
Yassin said Sunday that Hamas would teach Israel “an unforgettable lesson” as hundreds of supporters gathered outside his home here to congratulate him on surviving Saturday’s air strike.—AFP
RAMALLAH (West Bank), Sept 7: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asked parliament speaker Ahmad Qorei on Sunday to become his new prime minister, Arafat’s senior advisor said.
