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RAMALLAH, Sept 3: Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will quit if parliament fails to back him in a power struggle with President Yasser Arafat by granting him new powers to take steps for peace, officials said on Wednesday.
A collapse of Abbas’s reformist drive could finish off a US-brokered peace “roadmap” process already endangered by a relapse into bloodshed and the cancellation of a temporary ceasefire by militants.
But Information Minister Nabil Amr said Abbas was determined to quit the post he has held since April 30, when Arafat appointed him under US pressure, if parliament did not convey solid support for his government on Thursday.
“Abbas will ask for support for his policies or he leaves,” Amr said in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas will demand his government be “fully empowered...especially in the security and administrative fields,” he said.
“He (Abbas) will clearly ask for backing of his policies based on the principle of one authority, respect for the rule of law, and rejection of illegal weapons,” Amr said.
Arafat reiterated accusations that Israel had killed the roadmap with escalating attacks on militants. “The roadmap is dead, but only because of Israeli military aggression,” Arafat told CNN in an off-camera interview.
The roadmap initiative, launched by US President George W. Bush at a summit with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in June, sets out reciprocal steps to end almost three years of violence and create a Palestinian state by 2005.
ARAFAT ACCUSES BUSH: Bush’s administration has frozen Arafat out of peacemaking, accusing him of orchestrating violence. He denies this.
Arafat accused Washington of not doing enough to keep the peace plan alive due to its preoccupation with rebuilding Iraq and next year’s US presidential election, according to CNN.
Israel has carried out six helicopter missile attacks on Islamic militants since a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 21 people in an attack on a Jerusalem bus on August 19. Eleven militants and five bystanders have died in the strikes.
The power struggle between Abbas and Arafat has centred on Abbas’s demand for power over the security forces who are crucial for reining in militants as required by the roadmap.
Palestinian officials said Arafat was trying to undermine Abbas to show the world only he could push forward peace moves.
Arafat has publicly endorsed the roadmap, but balked at relinquishing control of Palestinian security forces to Abbas.
Lawmaker Qadoura Faris said all 85 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council backed Abbas’s reform agenda.
“But what bothers us is the way he is administering his crisis with Arafat. This is a big problem and has caused a lot of confusion,” Faris said.
He said some lawmakers had suggested a compromise to end the rivalry between Arafat and Abbas. “These proposals could be presented during the parliament session on Thursday and become resolutions that would be binding to both Arafat and (Abbas).”
Officials expect Arafat to use his influence with lawmakers from his influential Fatah group, who make up the majority of parliament, to further undermine Abbas in Thursday’s session.
However, they said, Arafat would try to prevent Abbas from resigning to avoid a likely storm of international criticism.
Amr said Abbas would not mention the power struggle with Arafat in his appeal to parliament on Thursday, but he would ask for powers for himself in the security fields.—Reuters
