EU: Israel Must Know There is No Power Vacuum in Palestinian Leadership
AP 2004/11/2
Brussels
The European Union said Tuesday the Palestinian government remained fully in power, though President Yasser Arafat lies in a Paris hospital suffering from a serious, but undisclosed illness.
EU security affairs chief Javier Solana urged Israel to recognize that fact "at a moment of potential crisis" that carries the risk of a new outbreak of violence by forces eager to exploit a power vacuum in the Palestinian leadership. "It is important for Israel to recognize that the institutions (of government) are working in the Palestinians areas," he told reporters after briefing the EU foreign ministers on the situation in the Middle East after Arafat was flown to a Paris hospital last Thursday.
Officials said it was important to see stability and continuity in the Palestinian leadership now that Arafat is very ill.
Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, told reporters separately, Palestinians were making "determined efforts to prevent a power vacuum." Solana said he and other EU officials are "in permanent contact" with Palestinian leaders, in Arafat's entourage in Paris and the West Bank City of Ramallah, including Prime Minister Ahmad Qureih and Mahmoud Abbas, the No. 2 in the hierarchy of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The foreign ministers took a "business as usual" approach, urging Palestinians and Israelis to accelerate work on the Roadmap to peace -- put forward by the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations -- that foresees a two-state solution. Solana again urged the Palestinians to establish more security. He said the EU was ready to help, but did not elaborate, and added it will continue to provide economic and other assistance. Also, he said, it was important for the Palestinians to press ahead with government reforms and the staging of local elections in December. Solana said with Arafat in hospital, it was important for both sides to take a "less incremental" approach to maintain momentum toward peace. He said Israel's commitment to unilaterally disengage from the Palestinians by pulling out of the Gaza Strip next year must be part of the peace plan.
There have been conflicting reports about the seriousness of Arafat's illness, partly because of a refusal by the French medical team at Percy Military Teaching Hospital to comment on Arafat's condition or discuss what tests and treatment he is undergoing. Some sources have said the illness is "fatal."
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