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Egyptian
Mediation Breaks Palestinian Cabinet Deadlock
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Egyptian
Intelligence Chief's final push to settle the standoff over a new
cabinet proved a success
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RAMALLAH,
West Bank, April 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat allowed prime minister-designate
Mahmud Abbas to name Mohammed Dahlan as internal security minister in
his new cabinet Wednesday, April 23, breaking their deadlock,
presidential secretary Tayeb Abdelrahim said.
"Now
Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom de guerre) will come with Omar Suleiman and
declare a new cabinet," Abdelrahim said, just minutes before the
Egyptian intelligence chief, who carried out last-minute shuttle
diplomacy, entered Arafat's offices with Abbas.
Dahlan,
Abbas' nominee whose appointment Arafat had refused until only a few
hours before a deadline of midnight (2100 GMT), walked in minutes
later, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"Dahlan
will be state minister for security affairs," said Abdelrahim,
adding that Abbas himself would be interior minister, a line-up which
marks a major victory for the premier and a severe blow for Arafat,
who had rejected the formula backed by the international community.
"Immediate
Release"
The
agreement was also set to open the way for U.S. President George W.
Bush to publish the international peace "roadmap" which sets
out the steps to Palestinian statehood and an end to the 30-month
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A
top aide to Arafat called for the "immediate" release of the
international community's Middle East peace plan after the end of the
disagreement.
"After
overcoming the obstacles in the formation of a new cabinet, we ask the
international community to push Israel to withdraw from Palestinian
territories and for the quartet to immediately implement the
roadmap" drawn up by U.S., U.N., E.U. and Russian diplomats, said
Nabil Abu Rudeina.
International
attempts to encourage a last-minute breakthrough continued
late Tuesday, April 22, with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa
and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh both phoning Arafat.
Earlier,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the Palestinian leader, as
well as the foreign ministers of Greece, Spain and Japan, to press him
to relent.
In
Ramallah, Russia's Middle East envoy Andrei Vdovin engaged in an
intense bout of shuttle diplomacy, meeting first with Arafat, then
with Abbas, then with Arafat once again.
A
Palestinian official told AFP that a U.S. State Department official
had phoned Arafat late Tuesday and warned him he would have to
"bear responsibility for a failure" in the talks.
"Problem
Of Mistrust"
Abu
Mazen does not enjoy wide support among Palestinians but is a seasoned
politician, co-founder with Arafat of the PLO's mainstream Fatah
movement and a prominent figure in the agreement of the 1993 Oslo
partial peace accords.
The
Islamic resistance movement Hamas warned shortly after the Arafat-Abu
Mazen disagreement was defused that the new moderate cabinet not to
take on resistance fighters.
"The
Zionist occupation is terrorism. If this cabinet resists and makes war
against the occupation, we will welcome it, but if this cabinet makes
war against the mujahedeen, we will not welcome it," a group
leader said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.
Prominent
Palestinian lawmaker, Hanan Ashrawi, on Tuesday, lashed out at Abu
Mazen’s choices, accusing him of “relying on controversial
persons, with less experience than a controversial past”.
Abu
Mazen said in a statement earlier in the day that he "will
continue his efforts to form a government until the end of the legal
deadline. Dialogue will continue will all different factions."
"The
main reason for accepting the task of forming a new government was to
serve Palestinian interests first and foremost," Abu Mazen said
in statement.
"If
this will not happen then there will be no need for a new
government."
Abbas
said the problem at the heart of the talks was not specific names but
a "problem of mistrust."
"It
is also a problem of powers assigned," the statement said.
Arafat
is seen by many to be in a key struggle to save his almost 50-year
political career, fearing that if Abbas is granted full powers as
premier then he himself will be relegated to a mere symbolic role.
More
Demolitions
On
the ground, Israeli occupation forces bulldozed the Gaza house of a
senior Palestinian police chief related to Yasser Arafat and another
belonging to a senior Gaza security official, Palestinian security
officials said.
An
army bulldozer accompanied by two tanks smashed into the house of
General Mussa Arafat, police intelligence chief and cousin of the
Palestinian leader in Deir El-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the
officials said.
They
added the bulldozer also destroyed the nearby home of General Haj
Mutlak, head of finance for the Palestinian General Security Service
in the Gaza Strip.
Neither
of the men were in the houses, and General Arafat has another
residence in Gaza City to the north.
Bulldozers
also smashed six other houses in incursions in southern Gaza City and
Rafah in the south, according to Palestinian security sources.
Israeli
forces have so far destroyed around 200 houses belonging to
Palestinian resistance fighters allegedly to deter attacks by bombers
and gunmen.
Arrested
Israeli
occupation troops continued their crackdown on Palestinian fighters
Wednesday and thrust into a hospital in the Wes Bank city of Jenin,
abducted three fighters of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement.
Aissar
Atrash, 22, considered an important local leader of the resistance
group was arrested in a hospital in Jenin where he had been admitted
two days earlier after being shot in the leg in an exchange of fire
during an Israeli raid on the town, AFP reported.
Fellow
Jihad fighter Izad Zawadra, 24, who was also wounded by gunfire
fighting the Israelis, was likewise nabbed in a different hospital in
the town, considered by Israel a bastion of die-hard Palestinian
fighters.
The
third Jihad member was Anas Shraideh, 21, originally from Al-Khalil
(Hebron) in the south. He was studying at An-Najah university in
Nablus.
An
army spokesman said Shraideh was seriously wounded trying to resist
abduction.
His
wife was also detained for questioning after troops found five
explosive devices in the house, the army spokesman said.
Israeli
troops, in addition, broke Wednesday into Beir Zeit and opened fire on
a number of students, leaving some of them seriously injured, Al-Jazeera
reported.
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