RAMALLAH, West Bank, 28 April 2003 — Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that he would not visit foreign capitals to discuss peace moves until Israel allowed President Yasser Arafat to travel freely again.
Analysts say Abbas fears that accepting a White House invitation would make him look like a US lackey in Palestinian eyes unless Israel stops trying to isolate Arafat. Washington, Israel’s key ally, wants the veteran president sidelined.
US President George W. Bush is due to unveil a road map shortly, aimed at reviving negotiations after two and a half years of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and Abbas’ stand may delay such talks.
“I will not travel anywhere before Israel lifts a siege on President Arafat so that we can get a guarantee he will be able to go abroad and come back freely without Israeli objection,” Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, told Reuters.
The right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Arafat is free to leave his Ramallah base and go abroad but it will not guarantee to let him return.
It also put Abbas on notice that he should not expect any significant Israeli confidence-building measures, such as troop pullbacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or release of Palestinian prisoners immediately after taking office.
A senior government source said Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided in consultations on Sunday that such moves would not take place until Abbas demonstrated he was waging a “serious fight against terrorism”, including the arrest, interrogation and trial of Palestinian fighters. Yesterday Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom decided they would not boycott visiting officials who also meet with Arafat, although they would tell them they had viewed such meetings gravely.
Arafat appointed his long-time associate as the Palestinians’ first prime minister under international pressure for democratic reforms seen as critical to peaceful coexistence with Israel.
Israeli forces besieged and partly demolished Arafat’s West Bank compound last year after a spate of bombings by militants that Israel and the US claim have been incited and funded by the Palestinian president throughout the uprising.
Arafat denies fomenting violence and has repeatedly denounced attacks by militants.
The Bush administration says it will have nothing more to do with him and will regard Abbas as the Palestinian leader in future international relations.
Abbas, a secretive former peace negotiator whose opposition to violence has won praise from Bush, is esteemed abroad but has little personal support among ordinary Palestinians. By contrast Arafat, the icon of Palestinian nationalism since the 1960s, still tops Palestinian opinion polls in spite of popular demand for democratization and an end to corruption.
Well-informed sources in the Palestinian Legislative Council said Abbas might face a challenge when he presents his Cabinet to the PLC this week. The session is scheduled for Tuesday. Independent PLC member Emad Al-Faluji, a former Hamas leader, said the new Cabinet faced opposition in the parliament. “Many countries have been urging us to approve the new Cabinet, but Abu Mazen has disregarded the PLC’s demands discussed during its formation,” he said.
