Arafat back in control!

“for Advanced


News Front Page
Top Stories
U.S. National
Crimes and Trials
Most Popular
Business
World
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Politics
Science
Health
Oddly Enough
Op/Ed
Lifestyle
Local
Comics
News Photos
Most Popular
Weather
Audio/Video
Full Coverage
Lottery
Crosswords
News for Kids


Full Coverage
More about
Mideast Conflict
Related News Stories
• Arafat Accepts Resignation of PM Abbas AP (Sep 6, 2003)
• Arafat Decision on PM's Resignation Unclear Reuters (Sep 6, 2003)
• Abbas Resignation Hinders U.S. Peace Plan AP (Sep 6, 2003)
Opinion & Editorials
• The Stalled Middle East Peace Plan NY Times (registration req'd) (Sep 5, 2003)
• Blows to Israel Must Never Go Unanswered LA Times (registration req'd) (Sep 5, 2003)
• About Israel's Arab citizens Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Sep 4, 2003)
Feature Articles
• Israel's vision: an unbreachable wall against terror Christian Science Monitor (Sep 5, 2003)
• Abbas and Arafat: rivals who need one another Christian Science Monitor (Sep 5, 2003)
Related Web Sites
• Roadmap to Solution of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• UN: The Question of Palestine
• U.S. Department of State: Middle East Peace Process


News Resources
Providers
· AP
· Reuters
· AFP
· The New York Times
· washingtonpost.com
· USA TODAY
· U.S. News & World Report
· NPR
News Alerts
· Yasser Arafat
· Fatah
· Ariel Sharon
· Palestinian Authority
Services
· Daily Emails
· Free News Alerts
News via RSS




Help us improve Yahoo! News.
Click Here!

Top Stories - AP

Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas Resigns
2 hours, 19 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!


By LARA SUKHTIAN, Associated Press Writer

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, increasingly unpopular and worn out by a power struggle with Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), resigned Saturday. Within hours, Israel bombed a Gaza City building where top Hamas leaders were meeting, lightly wounding the group's founder.


AP Photo


AFP
Slideshow: Mideast Conflict

Palestinian Officials Comment on Resignation
(AP Video)



Arafat told lawmakers in a meeting later Saturday that Abbas now heads a caretaker government, implying that he had accepted the resignation. However, some Palestinian officials said that for that acceptance to become formal, Arafat would have to send a letter to Abbas — which he had not done.


Arafat also said he had called meetings for Sunday with his Fatah (news - web sites) faction to begin discussions about the leadership crisis.


Abbas' resignation dealt a further blow to the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, leaving Israel and the United States without a negotiating partner as both refuse to speak with Arafat. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s office warned it would not agree to Arafat heading the Palestinian government, and the Israeli justice minister said Israel may now reconsider sending him into exile.


In a statement, Abbas, who was backed by Israel and the United States during his four turbulent months in office, he listed a number of reasons for his resignation, including what he said was Israel's unwillingness to implement its obligations in the road map.


Abbas also said the United States "did not exert sufficient influence on Israel" to carry out commitments under the plan, which calls for an end to violence and envisions creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.


Such concessions by Israel, such as freezing the growth of settlements, might have strengthened Abbas in his power struggle with Arafat.


In Israel's latest strike against Palestinian militants, a warplane dropped a bomb on a Gaza City building. Senior Israeli military officials confirmed an attempt to wipe out the Islamic group's top three leaders as they assembled for a meeting.


Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin — the highest-ranking Hamas leader to be targeted by Israel — was lightly wounded in his hand, Hamas officials said.


Fifteen bystanders also were wounded in the strike, which hit a third-floor apartment in the building, belonging to well-known Hamas activist Marwan Abu Rass. Another senior Hamas official, Ismail Hanieh, was also in the building with Yassin.


Bodyguards carried Yassin, who is a quadriplegic, from the building and took him away in a car. During the attack, Yassin's distinctive brown Land Rover, driven by his son, was parked outside the building.


The Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strike failed because a relatively small amount of explosives — 550 pounds — was used in an effort to avoid killing bystanders.


In a statement later, Abbas condemned the Israeli strike as "criminal," saying in a statement that it "reaffirms Israel's unwillingness to take the path of peace" and will only "exacerbate the current crisis."


In comments to more than 80 legislators, Arafat left lawmakers bewildered about whether he had accepted the resignation of Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.


"In the meeting, Arafat accepted Abu Mazen's resignation and declared his government a caretaker government," legislator Hanan Ashrawi told The Associated Press. Ashrawi said she asked Arafat if the resignation had been accepted, and he said, "What else could it mean?"


Another lawmaker, Mohammed Houranim, also said he interpreted Arafat's statement as accepting the resignation.


But lawmaker and chief Palestinian negotiator with the Israelis, Saeb Erekat, told CNN that for a resignation to become official, Arafat had to send a "letter in writing" to Abbas.





"This did not happen so I think it's premature to jump to conclusions," he said, adding that it was now a caretaker government "fully empowered, especially about the road map and Palestinian obligations, to take decisions."

He said Arafat could ultimately turn to Abbas again and ask him to form a new government.

Israel reiterated Saturday it will not accept a government controlled by Arafat or one of his loyalists.

"Israel is monitoring the developments, and says it will not accept a state of affairs in which control over the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) reverts back to Yasser Arafat or one of his loyalists," said a statement from Sharon's office.

Palestinian officials said they feared the resignation would lead the region into further chaos.

"We are entering a new crisis and the price of this crisis will be the shedding of a lot of blood," said Kadoura Fares, a legislator from the ruling Fatah movement.

Abbas' resignation could end up being a blow to Arafat, even if at first it appeared the veteran leader had outmaneuvered his politically inexperienced prime minister.

His departure was expected to further hurt Arafat's international standing if he is seen as having engineered the prime minister's departure. It could also lower the threshold for possible Israeli action against Arafat, including sending him into exile.

Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said earlier this week that Israel might have to expel Arafat before the end of the year if he keeps getting into the way of peace efforts. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said the resignation might force Israel to make a decision.

"We have refrained so far from transferring Arafat into Europe or Africa or anywhere else. And we have done this on the request of the White House," Lapid said. "Maybe the White House will have second thoughts now and then we'll have to consider Arafat's presence again."

Until now, Sharon has held back on expulsion, both because of U.S. opposition and because of warnings from his security advisers that sending Arafat abroad would do more harm than keeping him relatively isolated at his West Bank headquarters.

Abbas, who might have been ousted anyhow in a confidence vote in parliament next week, had his resignation letter delivered to Arafat by two senior officials Saturday before addressing the legislature in a closed-door session to explain his decision.

Abbas had been frustrated by the constant wrangling with Arafat, his aides said. He was also hurt by the near-collapse of the road map and his inability to improve the daily lives of Palestinians.

On Thursday, when Abbas addressed legislators, he was heckled and shoved by an angry crowd of Arafat supporters, including several armed and masked men.

Abbas and Arafat have been at odds ever since Arafat appointed the prime minister under intense international pressure in April. The latest standoff was over control of the security forces. Abbas, backed by the United States, demanded command over all men under arms, but Arafat refused to relinquish control over four of the eight security branches.

Abbas had said he would not clamp down on militants as required by road map. However, being in control of all the security forces would have given him greater authority in renewed negotiations with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and renegades from his own Fatah movement.”

“Ali Akbar”