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Erakat Resigns From Palestinian Government
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Erakat told AFP he resigned but refused to give any explanation for the move
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JERICHO,
West Bank, May 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian
negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said he handed in his resignation to
prime minister Mahmud Abbas on Friday, May 16.
Erakat
told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he resigned but refused to give any
explanation for the move, which came a day before a planned meeting
between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
While
interior security minister Mohammad Dahlan and parliamentary speaker
Ahmad Qorei were invited to join Abbas in his talks with Sharon,
Erakat was not, AFP said.
According
to a senior Palestinian
official who asked to remain anonymous, Erakat may have resigned to
express his displeasure at his exclusion from the talks.
Before
he was handed the newly-created negotiations portfolio in the Abbas
government sworn in last month, Erakat was minister of local
government.
He
previously led Palestinian
teams in negotiations with Israel before the September 2000 outbreak
of the uprising against Israeli occupation and was considered closer
to Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat than to Abbas.
But
the 48-year-old east Jerusalem-born Erakat has often been at odds with
the stalwarts of the Palestinian
leadership and a rare voice condemning corruption in the Palestinian
Authority (PA).
The
U.S.-educated, media-savvy Erakat has been a deputy for the West Bank
town of Jericho since 1996 and one of the most prominent figures in
the PA since the start of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli
occupation.
Sharon
will meet Abbas on Saturday in a bid to boost his standing ahead of
crucial talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on a peace roadmap.
The
two premiers are slated to meet for the first time to discuss the
internationally-drafted roadmap, unveiled on April 30, but they are
approaching the talks with different agendas.
For
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, the meeting has a single objective --
to win official Israeli acceptance of the plan following the failure
of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to do so during a two-day
visit last weekend.
"Since
Powell did not succeed, Abu Mazen felt he had to obtain Sharon's
approval by meeting him directly," a senior Palestinian official
told AFP.
Drawn
up by the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations,
the roadmap aims to steer a path to end 31 months of
Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed and establish a Palestinian state by
2005.
However,
Israel has
drawn up a list of 15 reservations on the plan and fuelled Palestinian
fears that Sharon will attempt to dump the roadmap altogether when he
meets Bush in Washington next Tuesday, May 20.
Not
only has Israel
failed to make any significant gesture towards the Palestinians, it
has dismissed a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the
Palestinian territories, a condition of the first phase of the
roadmap.
Despite
Washington's efforts to keep the roadmap alive and Powell's assurances
it would not be "rewritten" during Sharon's visit, distrust
is still running high.
The
Abbas-Sharon meeting "will only be useful if it is based on the
implementation of the roadmap," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a top
aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"If
Israel has
different intentions, there is no need for it."
Sharon,
however, appears to be approaching the meeting with a different
agenda, regarding it as little more than a formality to ease his way
into the talks with Bush, seen as crucial for the survival of the
roadmap.
After
Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz made several dismissive
comments about the roadmap that provoked U.S. anger, the meeting with
Abbas is likely to be touted by Israel
as proof of its readiness to pursue the roadmap.
Powell
said Thursday that Israeli and Palestinian leaders must be prepared to
make compromises to bring peace to the Middle East.
"This
is the time for both sides to be prepared to make compromises. We
cannot stay where we are," Powell said. "We have to move
forward and seize this opportunity. We cannot miss it."
But
Sharon does not seem overly worried by his trip to the United States,
Israeli daily Haaretz said.
"Sharon
believes his meeting with Bush next week will be as successful as the
seven previous ones" since he first took office two years ago,
Israeli commentator Aluf Benn wrote.
With
the U.S. administration reportedly agreeing to some 12 out of 15 Israel's
proposed amendments to the roadmap, despite Powell's comments, Sharon
is "not at all flustered".
He
is convinced the settlement issue is not on the agenda and that
security must be dealt with first, according to Israeli commentators.
And
Sharon knows the main issue for Bush's senior advisers is next year's
presidential race and the large number of Jewish voters in Florida,
making the Bush camp "careful not to annoy the American Jewish
community", he wrote.
"Therefore
it seems that this time too he will prefer understandings and hugs
with Sharon over controversy and confrontation," according to
Benn.
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