GAZA CITY, 9 July 2003 — The Fatah Central Committee unanimously rejected Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas’ resignation yesterday over his handling of policies toward Israel, a senior Fatah official and committee member said. The official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Abbas submitted his resignation earlier the same day in a letter to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who heads the PLO’s mainstream Fatah party.
In a separate letter to the central committee, the prime minister challenged the organization to outline a different policy toward the Israeli government and said he was ready to step down if his own line was at fault. The resignation offer follows a stormy meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank town of Ramallah late Monday at which Abbas came under fire over his contacts with Israel, especially on the issue of prisoner releases.
As a result, Abbas, who is also known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mazen, has postponed a scheduled meeting today with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. “If Abu Mazen were to resign, that would be the result of Israeli pressure because he secured a cease-fire, whereas Israel seems to want to provoke a (Palestinian) civil war,” said Sakher Habash, a fellow member of Fatah’s Central Committee.
Abbas and Arafat were co-founders of Fatah in 1965. A statement obtained by AFP said the Ramallah meeting had agreed that all Palestinian prisoners, around 6,000 detainees, must be released unconditionally following the cease-fire by Palestinian militants. Sources said members of the leadership expressed dismay about Abbas’ moderate approach on the issue.
Palestinian Authority ministers have been angered by an Israeli government decision on Sunday to pave the way for the release of just 350 Palestinian prisoners, representing little more than five percent of those currently in detention. Israel’s Cabinet laid down strict criteria for the releases effectively ruling out anyone from the hard-line groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which on June 29 called a three-month halt to anti-Israeli attacks.
PA officials said the meeting Abbas had set with Sharon for today to discuss further steps on the US-backed road map to peace had been postponed because of the internal crisis. Abbas told reporters yesterday the meeting was put off “for technical reasons”.
Palestinian officials cited growing tension between Abbas and members of the Central Committee and said he had resigned from the body in protest at verbal assaults on his performance. Hard-line members of the Central Committee, the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, asked him in a session on Monday evening to step down as prime minister, they added.
They said that after a shouting match between Abbas and Central Committee critics, Abbas sent two letters to Arafat, one of them delivering his resignation from the panel. “In the other letter, he asked Arafat and ... Fatah to send him their instructions on how to run his government and negotiations with Israel. If he rejects their ideas, he will resign as prime minister.”
—Additional input from agencies
