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Qorei Asked to Form New Govt
Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat
RAMALLAH, West Bank, 29 October 2003 — Yasser Arafat yesterday asked Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei to stay on the job and form a new government by next week, officials said, a move that could give a small lift to a troubled US-backed peace plan.
Qorei, whose one-month term as head of an emergency Cabinet ends next week, said he hasn’t received a formal offer yet, but that he would accept once he receives it.
The United States and other international mediators have been closely watching Palestinian efforts to form a government, saying a stable Palestinian leadership is needed to push the road map peace plan forward. Still, yesterday’s announcement failed to resolve the sticky issue of who would oversee Palestinian security forces.
In new violence, undercover Israeli troops killed a fugitive Palestinian in a West Bank refugee camp, witnesses said. Ibrahim Al-Naneesh, 37, was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militant group loosely linked to Arafat’s Fatah faction.
The army said the fugitive was responsible for several attacks on Israeli civilians and fired at soldiers who killed him. Soldiers found an M-16 and several magazines on the body. The witnesses said Naneesh was armed, but did not fire on the soldiers, who got out of a car and shot him.
Shortly after the incident, a second militant opened fire, the army said. Soldiers fired back and hit him. The wounded militant was taken to a Tulkarm hospital.
The developments came as Israel held local elections in which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party was expected to lose several key mayorships.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Swiss diplomat to protest Switzerland’s backing for an informal Mideast peace plan reached by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, an official said yesterday.
Qorei currently heads an emergency Cabinet whose term expires Nov. 4. There had been some uncertainty over whether Qorei, upset by arguments with Arafat over control of the security forces, would agree to continue in the job.
Palestinian officials gave conflicting accounts about yesterday’s meeting of the PLO leadership.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Abbas Zaki, a senior PLO official, said Qorei had accepted Arafat’s offer to form a new government. But reached later, Qorei said he had not been formally invited, although he plans to accept the offer.
“The plan is to have this government ready” by the time the term of the emergency Cabinet expires, Shaath said. “We do not want any more time wasted.”
Qorei’s previous efforts to form a larger government have failed because of wrangling over appointments. In particular, Qorei had been unable to agree with Arafat over the key post of interior minister, who would control the various Palestinian security agencies.
Shaath said the interior minister’s post so far remains unfilled.
“There will be a strong and capable interior minister who will exercise all security responsibilities assigned to him,” he said. “No names were discussed this morning, but as I said the principles and the basis are all agreed to.”
Israel and the United States say the forces must be consolidated under one body, in order to be effective in dismantling militant groups. Qorei, who hopes to reach a cease-fire with Israel and get peace talks back on track, had unsuccessfully tried to attract representatives of militant groups into his first government.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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