Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei retracted his resignation on Tuesday after Yasser Arafat granted him some powers to carry out reforms, easing a paralysing leadership crisis, officials said. Qorei's chief of staff said he had won effective control over parts of a security apparatus whose internal corruption and lawlessness are seen by US-led mediators as an obstacle to reviving peacemaking between Palestinians and Israel.
But Arafat, a former guerrilla leader turned president, retained his grip on the bulk of a dozen security services.
He has not implemented reform pledges made in the past under international pressure and US reaction to what Palestinian officials billed as a breakthrough on Tuesday was sceptical.
Arafat acted after an unprecedented explosion of public unrest in Gaza over inaction on demands for reforms, including elections, to weed out an entrenched old elite around Arafat and make Palestinian institutions more democratic and accountable.
The strife, which has raised fears of a descent into anarchy, hinted at a power struggle brewing in Gaza in anticipation of Israel's planned evacuation of settlers next year to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians in some of the territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
"(Arafat) rejected my resignation and I will now comply," Qorei, who said 10 days ago he would quit, told reporters.
"I am satisfied that President Arafat is serious this time, that it is not just words but that this time there will be action," the veteran moderate added.
Qorei and Arafat, for decades comrades atop the Palestinian national movement, emerged from a cabinet meeting holding up their hands together and exchanging kisses to the cheek in a show of reconciliation after two weeks of tension and turmoil.
Hassan Abu Libdeh, Qorei's chief of staff, said the deal put his cabinet in charge of the police and preventive (internal) security services for the first time.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Qorei was now "empowered" to revamp security organs via his interior ministry.
Arafat's top adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah said the agreement clarified the powers of president and prime minister "according to our Basic Law. The two will complement each other".
Arafat further agreed to allow the Palestinian attorney general to pursue investigations into high-level graft to foster the rule of law, Qorei's negotiations minister Saeb Erekat said.
But Arafat retained control over a murky collection of national armed forces and intelligence agencies, which encompass most security personnel and have been the fount of his power.
The interior minister, who formally oversees the police and is an Arafat loyalist imposed on Qorei when he formed his cabinet with a reform mandate late last year, retained his post.
A spokesman for young militants in Arafat's Fatah movement, who sewed chaos this month by abducting several senior officials and attacking security units to back anti-graft demands, said they were studying the changes to see whether they were genuine. US Secretary of State Colin Powell was not convinced.
"We need action, not propositions, not proposals, not commitments, (but) action," he said during a visit to Hungary.
"Real action that transfers power to the prime minister, to the Palestinian people, Palestinian Authority and a consolidation of security services ... under the direction of the prime minister," Powell told reporters. International mediators see Palestinian reforms, along with Israeli restraint in military operations against Palestinian militants, as crucial to reviving a peace plan promising Palestinians a state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
A Gaza youth of 17 died on Tuesday of wounds sustained 10 days ago during the internal Palestinian fighting, medics said.
Two Palestinians, at least one of them a Hamas militant, were killed in a clash with Israeli troops on the edge of Gaza City. The army said forces fired at militants preparing to launch a mortar at a nearby Jewish settlement.
Comments
Comments are closed.