Arafat Ready For "Unified National Authority"

Saeda Hamad, Fathi Sabah     Al-Hayat      2003/08/28

Gaza, Jerusalem

A few hours after Yasser Arafat announced he was ready to take action against the Palestinian groups if "Israel stopped its aggression against the Palestinian people," he issued a communiqué calling upon all Palestinian forces, factions and parties to confirm "their commitment to the national unity and to the truce, in order to give the international peace efforts an opportunity to implement the Roadmap." He reiterated that the Palestinian Authority "has the approval and support to implement the truce and to renew efforts to guarantee the Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian cities." The Palestinian government, which held its meeting yesterday in Gaza headed by Mahmoud Abbas, supported President Arafat's call to commit to the truce. On the other hand, Fatah, which is headed by Arafat, warned the Israeli government from the "dangerous results of any attempt to harm the Palestinian President, maintaining in a statement that such a move would turn the whole region upside down, and bring it to "a complete explosion." The communiqué added that "no one can predict the dangerous consequences and results of any attempt to harm President Yasser Arafat" and that "the Hebrew state won't be able to bear the consequences and results of marginalizing him or killing him."

Nabil Abu Rudaina, the Palestinian President's advisor, denied that the President was ready to work against the Palestinian groups, maintaining that the statements quoted by Reuters are "inaccurate" and that the Palestinian President said he was ready "to impose one legal authority, and put an end to a the multi-authority system." He added: "the President is asking for the presence of one national authority that respects the sovereignty of law. We are against a multitude of authorities. This goes along with the Roadmap, and the truce, to which we are committed."

The disagreement between President Arafat and his Prime Minister intensified yesterday after the initial decision to promote Colonel Jibril Rajoub, former Head of Preventive Security Forces in Gaza, to the rank of General, and his appointment as Arafat's security advisor, a step considered to be a means to limit the authority of Palestinian Minister for Security Affairs, Mohamad Dahlan, who is a staunch advocate of unifying the security forces and the Palestinian intelligence, under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, which falls under his authority, after he was handed over the portfolio by Abbas.

In the latest developments of this disagreement between Arafat and Abbas, the Palestinian government decided in its meeting yesterday to include the budget of the security forces within the general balance of the Palestinian Authority starting next year, after it had been separate.

So far, the security forces falling under the responsibility of Yasser Arafat have a separate budget from that of the Palestinian Authority.

The government's decision is considered to be related to the discord that arose in the past few days between Arafat and Abbas, revolving around the authority over the security forces, which comprise between 35 and 40,000 elements.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, in his capacity as Minister of Interior Affairs, is demanding to have responsibility over the civil police, civil defense and the preventive security forces. In this regard, he is asking President Arafat to give up his control over the main security forces, particularly the national security forces the intelligence and the military intelligence; but Arafat is thus far refusing to do so.

The government also decided to appoint Sakhr Bsisso as head of the General Employee Diwan, replacing Mohamad Abdulaziz Abu Shariaa, and to appoint Abdelfattah Hmayel as Minister of the Youth and Sports.

Bsisso was the mayor of Northern Gaza, while Hmayel was a minister without portfolio in Abbas' government, since its establishment end of April. The Employee Diwan is considered as the only public institution that groups all the Palestinian Authority employees, which stand at around 120,000. This is the first time that the head of the Diwan, which has been directly affiliated to Arafat since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, is changed

According to one political analyst, the Palestinian Prime Minister has three main considerations that will determine his government's political program: first, will Israel stop its aggressions and its assassinations policy? In this regard, there was the failed assassination attempt carried out by Apache helicopters, upon Abbas' arrival to Gaza Tuesday night. The second consideration is the readiness of the resistance groups, namely Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, to accept a new truce. As for the third consideration, it is the flexibility of President Arafat in handing over some prerogatives to his Prime Minister, in order to shun American and Israeli pressure.

The analyst believes that, contrary to Abbas' declaration according to which the next legislative council meeting will not address the government's future or a vote of confidence, this meeting will be "decisive for this government."