Palestinian PM drops resignation
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-27 20:32

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie withdrew his resignation on Tuesday after Yasser Arafat granted him some powers to carry out reforms, easing a paralyzing leadership crisis, officials said.

Qurie's chief of staff said he had won effective control over police and internal security agencies, part of a security apparatus whose chaos and corruption is seen by international mediators as an obstacle to peacemaking with Israel.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (R) sits next to Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah July 27, 2004. [Reuters]

But Arafat, a former guerrilla leader, has not honored similar promises in the past. Tuesday's deal leaves him in charge of national security and intelligence which encompass the bulk of Palestinian security personnel.

"The president rejected my resignation and I will (now) comply," Qurie told reporters after 10 days of turmoil that raised fears of a descent into anarchy in the West Bank and Gaza.

"I hope I will be up to this confidence and cooperate with (Arafat) in carrying out this very difficult responsibility," Qurie said after a cabinet session from which he and the president emerged smiling, each kissing the other on the cheek.

Arafat would address the Palestinian people soon to provide details of the deal, Qurie added.

"The cabinet has been given powers to exercise its duties. We are speaking now of decrees and decisions that will be announced very soon," said Hassan Abu Libdeh, Qurie's chief of staff. "This is a good step. In the next few days and weeks we will see action permitting the government to play its role."

Qurie had wanted to bow out in despair over his inability to pursue reforms, especially to security organs under Arafat's thumb.

"(Arafat) has agreed to speed up the reform drive to end the state of lawlessness in the Palestinian territories," lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, who has blasted the president's "one-man" rule, said after the committee met with him on Monday evening.

LEADERSHIP STRUGGLE OVER REFORMS

U.S.-led mediators regard Palestinian reforms, along with Israeli restraint in military action against Palestinian militants, as crucial to reviving a peace plan promising Palestinians a state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

A power struggle has been brewing in Gaza in anticipation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw settlers and troops from the territory by the end of next year.

Arafat's leadership was challenged this month when gunmen linked to his Fatah faction sparked chaos in Gaza by kidnapping a number of Palestinian officials and foreigners to back demands that he overhaul security forces and other institutions.

Qurie, a longtime associate of Arafat but considered a moderate in the Palestinian Authority, wants him to relinquish control, both direct and indirect, over a grab bag of a dozen feuding security services.

But Arafat has seemed amenable only to cosmetic changes.

Ashrawi said Arafat would demand the Palestinian attorney general begin legal procedures against any officials involved in corruption. Another legislator said Arafat would give his interior minister powers to fight corruption.

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 or rocket at a nearby Jewish settlement.

Sharon said on Monday there was no turning back on his plan for "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians, even after 100,000 Israelis mounted the biggest protest so far.

They opposed evacuating 8,000 Jewish settlers from fortified enclaves among 1.3 million Gaza Palestinians.

Recent polls show most Israelis favor getting out of Gaza.