JEDDAH, 15 November 2004 — With the Palestinian presidential election date fixed for Jan. 9, intense diplomatic moves are expected to begin this week to allow maximum participation and greater transparency for the first post-Arafat exercise in democracy.

Arab and other Muslim countries have welcomed the Palestinian election and pledged their support to the new leadership organizing it. But they also plan to ask the United States to pressure Israel on three issues they regard as crucial for the legitimacy of the election:

• Israel should lift its siege of the Palestinian towns and cities to allow a normal election campaign with candidates holding public rallies and organizing grassroots canvassing.

• Israel should allow Marwan Barghouti, the charismatic West Bank leader, imprisoned on charges of terrorism to stand as a candidate. Barghouti’s friends say he has given them the go-ahead for taking the official steps needed for his candidacy.

• Israel should allow the Arab inhabitants of East Jerusalem to participate in the election as they did in 1996.

The Palestinian and Arab demands are expected to be put to the US Secretary of State Colin Powell next week when he meets the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait and Iraq at the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for a two-day conference.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu-Ghaith called on the United States to convene a meeting of the so-called “Quartet” to thrash out a joint strategy for supporting the Palestinian elections. The Quartet consists of the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Cabinet yesterday that he would not rule out the possibility of allowing the 230,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem to vote. Several months ago, however, Israeli police raided voter registration stations in the area, preventing most residents from registering.

Potential voters in East Jerusalem account for almost 30 percent of the total Palestinian electorate. The Palestinian Authority has registered almost 90 percent of voters in Gaza and the West Bank and hopes to register the remaining 10 percent within the next few weeks. But an election that excludes the voters of East Jerusalem would lose much of its legitimacy if only because the future of the holy city is one of the central issues of the 57-year-old conflict.

Speaking to the Cabinet, Sharon noted that East Jerusalem Arabs voted in the 1996 Palestinian elections, government officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Other senior officials, including Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Education Minister Limor Livnat, said they oppose allowing East Jerusalem Palestinians to vote. The Cabinet made no decision on the matter, and officials said the issue would be discussed further.

US Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said Washington would like Israel to help ensure that the Palestinian elections go smoothly. Patin declined to say whether the United States would pressure Israel on the East Jerusalem issue.

The Palestinians are trying to rally international pressure on Israel to ease conditions ahead of the vote, both on the East Jerusalem issue and the large Israeli military presence in the West Bank.

Israel has dozens of checkpoints, restricting Palestinian movement, and its army frequently conducts operations aimed at militants.

“Israelis have begun obstructing and putting obstacles in the way of free and fair elections,” said Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat. “We urge President Bush not to allow the Israelis to obstruct these elections.”

Persuading Israel to let Barghouti run may be even more difficult. While there is no specific Israeli law to prevent a prisoner from becoming a candidate in an election, the present Israeli leadership regards Barghouti as a dangerous terrorist rather than a future partner in peace negotiations. The way things look now, Israel is determined not to release Barghouti, who is serving multiple life terms for his role in the killings of four Israelis and a Greek monk. But his prominence could put pressure on Israel to free him.

Barghouti is perhaps the strongest candidate to oust Arafat’s old guard of supporters and many believe him to be the only leader capable of unifying squabbling Palestinian factions.

That makes Barghouti an attractive option for Washington which is looking for a new generation of leaders in the region. He is also the only candidate likely to win votes from the radical Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Erekat said the Fatah candidate would likely be chosen by the movement’s small central committee and not in a primary.

The committee would likely nominate Abbas, 69, an old guard politician who has taken over Arafat’s role as head of the PLO. During a PLO executive committee meeting yesterday, participants said no decisions were made on a presidential candidate.