U.S: WON'T BACK ANY PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT RUN BY ARAFAT

  Informe de Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies  en  “Ha´aretz” del 20.09.2003

The United States has made it clear to the Palestinian Authority that Washington will not support any government controlled by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

The U.S. called for the new Palestinian prime minister to take direct control of the PA
security forces, most of which are currently under Arafat's control.

The message was passed to Palestinian officials in recent days by John Wolf, the head of the American delegation to oversee the implementation of the road map.

Wolf also informed the Palestinians that the new prime minister will not receive American support unless he takes on the terrorist organizations, and is not satisfied with a truce. The former prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, refused to target the militant groups, saying that he would not be responsible for causing a civil war.

Instead, Abbas negotiated a temporary cease-fire which fell apart last month after a Hamas suicide bombing and the subsequent assassination by Israel of a senior member of the group.

The U.S. approach toward the PA has become increasingly tough, say Israeli officials. "The Palestinians' strategic setback is that they've lost America's backing," claimed a senior Israeli official this weekend.

The Sharon government was encouraged by the sharp criticism of Arafat articulated last week by U.S. President George Bush. "The U.S. president didn't voice this criticism at an AIPAC conference," said the top Israeli officials. "Instead he spoke while standing
beside an Arab leader, Jordan's King Abdullah."

The new Palestinian cabinet will be jointly appointed by Arafat and his nominee for prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, and will include a Hamas supporter and a U.S. favorite, Palestinian officials said Thursday.

"The government will be formed next week," one official said Thursday. Qureia, in an interview with the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam, said he was pleased with the progress made in cease-fire talks between the various Palestinian factions, adding that
Hamas and Islamic Jihad both appreciated the importance of Palestinian unity.

The two groups had announced a three-month truce on June 29, but declared it over some seven weeks later following the killing of a senior Hamas official in an Israeli missile strike.
The air strike came after a suicide bomber from the group blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus, killing 22 people.

Qureia rejected Israeli claims that his government would be judged by its ability to
disarm terror groups and said his role was to please no one but the Palestinian people.

Palestinian officials said Arafat's Fatah faction Thursday set criteria for the new
government, and added Hamas supporter Moussa Zabout, a Gaza physician, had been offered a posting.

The Fatah Central Committee began choosing candidates for 16 of 24 seats in the new
cabinet, a procedure that gives Arafat virtual control over the government. The other eight ministers are set to be chosen by Qureia, and will be selected from the Palestinian Legislative Council (the Palestinian parliament), of which Qureia is currently the speaker.

Zabout said he has accepted the offer by Qureia to join the cabinet, and that Hamas  officials did not object to him taking the job.

The appointment of Zabout could signal a slight softening of Hamas' refusal to be part of the Palestinian Authority, a product of interim peace accords with Israel rejected by Hamas.

Zabout would not be the first Hamas supporter included in a Palestinian cabinet. The former leader of Hamas' military wing, Imad al-Fallouji, served as telecommunications
minister for many years in previous governments.

Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, who has spearheaded financial reform in the Palestinian Authority and is a reformist supported by Washington, was expected to remain in his job, they said.

Fatah lawmaker Hatem Abdul-Qader said the ministerial list would be named by Arafat and Qureia, adding that the new government would focus on "internal reform, national unity, on ending chaos in Palestinian areas and imposing the rule of law."