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Talks
With Arafat Broken Down: Abu Mazen
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"Things
have broken down between me and Arafat. I will not come
back," said Abu Mazen
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RAMALLAH,
April 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The vital Palestinian
reform process seems as if it reached a dead-end as Palestinian prime
minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen (Abu Mazen) said Tuesday,
April 22, that talks with President Yasser Arafat had "broken
down."
Abu
Mazen said that he would not go back to crucial discussions on a new
cabinet, a source close to the protracted negotiations told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"Things
have broken down between me and Arafat. I will not come back,"
Abbas was quoted as saying by one of the mediators close to efforts to
jump-start talks between the two leaders which stalled late Saturday,
April 19, with Abbas walking out and threatening to quit.
Parliamentary
speaker Ahmed Qorei had been sent to meet Abbas to try to persuade him
to come back to the talks, but one parliamentarian told AFP that the
chances of bridging the gap between the two Fatah co-founders was
"very, very weak."
Parliamentarians
called on both men to make one last effort to find a way out of the
impasse, which is threatening efforts to reform Arafat's
much-criticised administration and to implement an international peace
plan.
"Our
message to both the president and the prime minister is to reach an
accord and declare a cabinet in the coming hours," said
independent deputy Hanan Ashrawi at a press conference to discuss the
crisis.
Qadura
Fares, a reformist deputy in Arafat's Fatah faction said
"Palestinian society is at a critical stage and we call on both
Arafat and Abu Mazen to shoulder their responsibility to the
Palestinian people, who are waiting and hoping for a change in the
Palestinian political system."
Abbas
stormed out of talks
on Saturday over Arafat's refusal to accept his nomination of Mohammed
Dahlan, who has long term relations with both the Americans and the
Israelis including commercial dealings, as his security chief.
Reforms
"Important" For Palestinians
Meanwhile,
the White House said Tuesday that it was "important" for
Palestinians to pursue political reforms, even as hopes faded that Abu
Mazen would create a cabinet.
"It's
important for the Palestinian people that reforms move forward,"
spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Abbas
has until midnight (2100 GMT) Wednesday, April 23, to name a new
cabinet or step aside, jeopardizing the chances for an international
peace plan, or "roadmap," which U.S. President George W.
Bush has said he will release when the moderate new leader has
revealed his line-up.
Fleischer
said Bush "keeps an eye on the situation."
And
though the State Department did not explicitly say it, spokesman
Richard Boucher hinted strongly
on Monday, April 21, that the release of the roadmap would be affected
if the deadline was missed.
"It's
essential that the Palestinians complete this process of establishing
a government urgently," Boucher said, indicating that Washington
firmly backed Abbas and his cabinet selections.
British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko
Kawaguchi both phoned Arafat on Tuesday to discuss the cabinet crisis,
the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
Israeli
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also accused Arafat late Monday of
"torpedoing once again any chance of renewing the peace
process."
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