Abbas Slams Israeli Threats against Arafat

PNA Cabinet of PM Abbas Slams Israeli Threats against Arafat

Sharon Aims at Creating Chaos, Crisis Atmosphere Among Palestinian Ranks

Cabinet of Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas on Saturday categorically rejected Israeli premier Ariel Sharon’s threats against President Yasser Arafat and warned that such Israeli “provocation” could gravely harm the prospects of progress in the peace process.

The Palestine National Authority’s (PNA) Cabinet’s warning came in direct challenge to Sharon’s threats to deport or arrest the Palestinian leader.

"It is a major mistake to keep up contact with Arafat because he is undermining Abu Mazen's government,” Sharon told the British right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper on Saturday.

In interviews published in Daily Telegraph Saturday and Italy’s Corriere Della Sera Friday, Sharon urged European countries to ignore Arafat, following the example of the United States, Israel and more recently Italy.

Later a senior aide to Sharon said Saturday that Israel would consider deporting Arafat if the Palestinian leader continued to try to "scuttle the peace process,” he claimed.

Raanan Gissin told The Associated Press that while Israel had not yet changed its policy on deporting Arafat, it told the United States "that if Arafat continued to try and scuttle the peace process and undermine Abu Mazen (Abbas), we will have no recourse but to bring the question to renewed discussion.”

The PNA Cabinet categorically rejected Israeli accusations and threats.

“The Cabinet categorically rejects the Israeli prime minister’s statements and his flagrant incitement against President Yasser Arafat, and considers these statements a provocation that could gravely harm the prospects for progress in the peace process,” the Cabinet said in a statement reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA on Saturday.

The Cabinet, in its weekly meeting chaired by PM Abbas in Ramallah Saturday, called upon “the nations of the world to continue dealing with the Palestinian leadership, led by President Arafat, as they have normally done.”

The PNA Minister of Information Nabil Amre, in a press conference at the PMC Saturday, reconfirmed the Cabinet’s statement.

“We absolutely reject any Israeli interference in this matter,” he said, confirming that “President Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and the Palestinian national institutions are the authority of reference” to PM Abbas.

Such Israeli provocative statements aim at creating “chaos” and “promoting a crisis atmosphere among Palestinian ranks,” Amre added.

Arafat: Sharon Determined to Obstruct Implementation of ‘Roadmap’

Separately President Arafat himself accused Sharon on Saturday of “acting by all means to obstruct the implementation of the roadmap,” the US-sponsored peace plan which was drafted and adopted by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

“The Israeli occupation and the total siege imposed by Sharon’s government is the obstacle to peace that obstructs the implementation of the roadmap, which we accepted publicly but Israel’s government did not approve,” WAFA quoted Arafat as saying.

Arafat was speaking following a meeting with a British parliamentarian delegation, to whom he confirmed “the Palestinian leadership’s commitment to the peace process and to the implementation of the roadmap.”

He stressed the importance of resuming the negotiations and “the necessity of having an international monitoring mechanism” to implement the roadmap.

PNA Cabinet Rejects Israeli Criteria on Detainees

In its statement Saturday, the PNA Cabinet rejected the Israeli government’s criteria for the release of Palestinian detainees in the jails of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

“The issue of detainees represents the maximum priority” in the talks and contacts with the Israeli side,” the Cabinet said.

The Palestinian Council of Ministers rejected “the Israeli criteria announced in this respect,” and decided to continue its political contacts with both the Israeli and the US sides to achieve the required progress on this issue, which the release of detainees.

The Israeli cabinet last week approved what the PNA described as a “selective” and “fragmental” approach, based on political affiliation, to deal with the issue of detainees, and ruled out the release of members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

According to a list prepared by Israeli security services the Israeli government decided to free only less than five percent of detainees, the PNA Minister of Cabinet Affairs Yasser Abed Rabbo said.

Israeli Withdrawals Are ‘Core Concern’ of Palestinians

The PNA cabinet confirmed media reports that the issue of more IOF withdrawals from reoccupied Palestinian Territory will be discussed by premiers Abbas and Sharon in their expected meeting, reportedly next week.

The IOF withdrew from parts of northern Gaza Strip and the West Bank Governorate of Bethlehem last week but maintained the tight closure they impose on both areas.

President Arafat described these Israeli moves as “cosmetic” and not “real” implementation of the “roadmap.”

The PNA Cabinet Saturday confirmed that IOF withdrawals from reoccupied Palestinian Territory “remain the core concern” of Palestinians, and stressed that the IOF pullouts must be “accompanied by lifting the internal closures” as well, in order for the withdrawals to be meaningful, citing the pullout from Bethlehem as a bad example.

“WE insist that the issue of internal closures be given a priority parallel in importance to the issue of withdrawals,” the PNA Minister of Information Amre said.

The PNA appreciated positively the US statements concerning the Israeli Apartheid wall.

The Palestinian cabinet rejected building this wall, described by Israel as a “security wall,” east of the Green Line, as an “illegitimate act of occupation,” and warned against the Israeli confiscation of vast areas of Palestinian land recently as “an obstacle to progress on the political track.”

Egyptian Contribution Welcomed

The PNA government appreciated “with relief” the stability of the Hudna and the reconfirmed commitment thereto by all factions and groups, and hailed Egyptian contribution to maintaining the truce as a precondition to the implementation of the roadmap.

In this context the Cabinet welcomed the upcoming visit by the Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Sulaiman.

Cabinet minister Amre did not confirm media reports on a three-way summit in Washington between premiers Abbas and Sharon with US President George W. Bush late this month: “There are no arrangements in this regard,” he said, indicating that what happens between Americans and Israelis in Washington “is a bilateral matter.”

Abbas Resignation a Fatah Internal Matter

As regards PM Abbas’ resignation from Fatah’s central committee, PNA Minister of Information said the Cabinet did not discuss this issue as it is an internal matter concerning Fatah, indicating at the same time that the resignation would neither affect the PNA government nor Abbas’ relations with the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is the center of Palestinian decision-making, Amre said.

Amre confirmed in his press conference that a circular was distributed to all official Palestinian media outlets banning incitement in compliance with a pertaining presidential decree.

However he indicated that the Palestinian –Israeli joint committee on incitement has yet to assume its work.

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