RAMALLAH, West Bank, 8 March 2003 — Palestinian President Yasser Arafat repeated here yesterday his offer to Palestine Liberation Organization No. 2 Mahmud Abbas to become the first Palestinian prime minister. “I hope that Abu Mazen (Abbas) will accept the post of prime minister,” Arafat said during a meeting of the PLO’s policy-making central council that was reviewing the Palestinian leader’s proposal to create the position.
“I implore you to agree to the appointment of Abu Mazen,” he added in his remarks to the council. But Abbas, who is secretary-general of the PLO executive committee, has said his eventual acceptance will depend on whether the job is purely ceremonial or actually has some teeth to it.
Sources close to him said he met with Arafat on Friday to discuss the job’s terms of reference and that divergences remained. Abbas said yesterday that he would not accept what he called a ceremonial job. He said he would delay his final decision until after the “tasks and prerogatives” of the new post are clarified by the central council and by the Palestinian Parliament. The latter is slated to meet tomorrow to amend the Basic Law, or constitution, to create the post.
“We must wait until the principle of (creating) a prime ministerial post is approved by (the council and the Parliament) and know what the tasks and prerogatives are,” he was quoted as saying. Saying he was waiting to see whether the job was “real or formal,” he made it clear he would refuse the offer it “does not come with prerogatives.”
Palestinian officials told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper Arafat would “issue on Tuesday or Wednesday a presidential decree appointing Abu Mazen” as prime minister. But parliamentary sources have warned they wanted to vote in the new prime minister and have him accountable to the Parliament.
Abbas does not enjoy wide support among Palestinians but is a seasoned politician, co-founder with Arafat of the PLO’s mainstream Fatah movement and a prominent figure in the agreement of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. On Feb. 14 Arafat yielded to pressure from the European Union and United States and said he would create a prime ministerial post as part of efforts to reform his administration. Depending on the outcome, the move could meet US and Israeli demands for Arafat, whom they refuse to deal with, to relegate power.
The head of the PLO’s political bureau, Farouk Kaddoumi, dismissed plans to create the post, saying it diverted attention from the real issues. It “is not a step taken as part of reform efforts but a diversion, to make Palestinian or international public opinion believe that the ball is in the Palestinian camp,” Kaddoumi told the Al-Hayat Arabic daily. The real issue, said Kaddoumi, is the Israeli occupation. PLO central council president Selim Al-Zaanun said that once the post is approved by the council, Arafat “will propose the future prime minister’s scope of competence to the Palestinian Legislative Council,” tomorrow.
