• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Qureia to Replace Prime Minister Abbas

Posted on: Monday, 8 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia has agreed in principle to take over as prime minister, sources close to him said Monday, following the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas. It remained unclear, however, if Israel would agree to deal with the new leader.

Israeli leaders have said they will not negotiate with any new government controlled or hand-picked by Arafat. They have not publicly commented on Qureia's nomination. Israeli officials have said privately they would have liked to see Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad in the job.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom spoke on the phone with Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss the developments, Israel Army Radio reported.

Arafat asked Qureia - a moderate who helped cobble together the 1993 Oslo accord between Israel and the PLO - to form a new government Sunday shortly after his nomination was confirmed by top officials of the ruling Fatah party and the PLO, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Arafat.

Qureia, widely known as Abu Ala, has agreed in principle to serve as prime minister, sources close to him said Monday. However, he has not yet given a formal response.

Qureia met Monday with Jeff Feldman, the acting U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, and was to hold talks later in the day with Andrei Vdovin, the Russian envoy to the Middle East.

Israeli helicopters, meanwhile, launched a missile strike on a Gaza Strip house that the army said was being used by the militant group Hamas to store weapons, wounding 11 people, including three children, hospital officials said. The army said it was targeting explosives and firearms stored there.

Also in Gaza, Israeli soldiers killed an armed Palestinian who was apparently planning to infiltrate a Jewish settlement, Col. Yossi Haddad said. The Palestinian - dressed in Israeli army fatigues and armed with a sub-machinegun, ammunition clips and hand grenades - fired back at the soldiers who were manning an outpost, Haddad said, adding that no Israeli troops were injured.

The violence came after a day of intensive backroom politics set off by Abbas' resignation on Saturday. Abbas said he was stepping down after Arafat refused to grant him more power over the Palestinian security services, capping four months of wrangling between the two since Abbas was appointed under U.S. and Israeli pressure.

Qureia was considered a top candidate because he has led past negotiations and has credibility with the Israelis.

Abbas' departure dealt a serious blow to the U.S.-backed "road map" plan for establishing a Palestinian state by 2005. Israel and the United States have refused to deal with Arafat, whom they accuse of fomenting terrorism, and made Abbas, a critic of terror attacks against Israelis, their partner in peace efforts.

But Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said the "peace process did not die and the principles (of the road map) we had agreed upon are acceptable to everybody."

Even as the Palestinians were scrambling to resolve their political crisis, momentum appeared to be growing in Israel for expelling Arafat, with Cabinet ministers arguing that Abbas' resignation proved the 74-year-old Palestinian leader is the main impediment to efforts to end three years of violence.

"As long as Arafat is in the region, he won't let any other leader develop," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio.

The United States has blocked Arafat's expulsion in the past, and security advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have warned that Arafat could do more harm to Israel abroad than by remaining trapped at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.

Speaking on NBC television's "Meet the Press," Powell said sending Arafat into exile was not a good idea because it would "put him on the world stage as opposed to the stage he is currently occupying."

Israel's recent policy has been to sideline Arafat - but that goal seemed far from being realized Sunday as Arafat seized center stage in the search for a new prime minister.

In a closed-door meeting that lasted into Sunday evening, Arafat and leaders of his Fatah movement discussed options, and several sources present at the meeting said Arafat tapped Qureia, also known as Abu Ala.

According to legislator Abdel Fattah Hamayel, Arafat told those present that Abbas "has left us in difficult circumstances." He then turned to Qureia, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, "God help you, Abu Ala, with the coming burden."

Qureia has long been the No. 3 leader in Fatah, after Arafat and Abbas. Seen as a moderate and a pragmatist, he was a key player in the secret talks that led to the 1993 Oslo accords, which led to Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. He also led the Palestinians in negotiations with Israel in the following years.

The 65-year-old politician is considered one of the few Palestinians who have credibility with Israel but also count on the important support of Arafat.

A report released Monday by the human rights group Amnesty International charged that Israeli military checkpoints, curfews and a new fence sealing off large parts of the West Bank all violate Palestinians' human rights.

Israeli officials declined to comment until they review the report. But Israel says the security fence and other restrictions on Palestinian movement are necessary to prevent further attacks. Suicide attacks have killed 397 Israelis in the past three years.

More News in this Category