RAMALLAH: Yasser Arafat lives behind mounds of debris in half-demolished quarters, ignored by US diplomats pushing a new Middle East peace plan. But while down, the longtime icon of Palestinian nationalism isn’t out.

The Palestinian president’s monolithic grip on power ended on April 30 when his erstwhile top loyalist was sworn into the new post of prime minister to curb violence and begin reform under world pressure for a diplomatic breakthrough with Israel.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell pointedly bypassed ex-guerrilla chief Arafat this weekend in launching talks with Israel and the Palestinians on the “roadmap” towards peace.

Powell’s snub reflected US policy, driven by Israel, to sideline him as an alleged serial orchestrator of bloodshed. But Arafat has denied it and, behind the rubble heaps, clung to his pre-eminence in Palestinian politics, analysts say.

Arafat’s ability to parry those bent on consigning him to figurehead irrelevance comes from his unequalled street charisma and networks of loyalists in security and diplomatic spheres amassed in 35 years atop the Palestinian independence movement.

Mediators have invested fresh peace hopes in Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate new premier also known as Abu Mazen. But he is handicapped by a lack of popularity and humiliating dependence on Israel for leverage to curb militants by relaxing its military grip on the West Bank.

“As long as Israel doesn’t withdraw troops and free prisoners, Arafat will retain the upper hand and Abbas will struggle for street legitimacy. Arafat remains the maestro of tactical survival,” said Palestinian analyst Mahdi Abdul-Hadi.

Militants jab Abbas where he is most vulnerable by branding him a traitor for criticising “resistance” to Israel even though its right-wing government opposes full Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005, as the peace plan prescribes.

Arafat has approved the roadmap in principle, but is believed to feel that disarming all fighters now would leave Palestinians without bargaining chips in future negotiations.

He has said little since Abbas took office, but signs abound that the grizzled, 74-year-old former guerrilla leader still wields overarching influence behind the scenes. Mediators presented the roadmap to Abbas, not Arafat. It seemed a jarring comedown for someone to whom would-be Middle East do-gooders once beat a path in diplomatic salons worldwide.

Abbas has assuaged Arafat by consulting him as Palestinian Authority president, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and head of its mainstream Fatah movement.

Arafat was deluged by congratulatory telegrams from abroad after Abbas’s appointment. European Union, UN and Russian members in the peacemaking Quartet maintain contacts with Arafat, diluting the boycott by lead partner Washington.

“Arafat is the elected head of the Palestinian people and we will keep dealing with him. He remains far more popular than Abbas. So it would be naive to assume he won’t continue to play a role,” said an international official in the region.

Abbas has betrayed a fear of offending Arafat in rejecting invitations to roadmap talks abroad, above all at the White House, until Israel allows Arafat to travel freely again.

Abbas also shifted the venue of his Sunday talks with Powell out of Ramallah to avoid “embarrassing” Arafat by receiving Washington’s top diplomat close to the battered compound where the president is cooped up, Palestinian officials said.

In a speech to parliament preceding his inauguration, Abbas took pains to praise Arafat as the peerless leader of “the Palestinian struggle”. When the dust settled, Arafat allies remained in portfolios handling diplomacy and negotiating policy and reporting to him. —Reuters