Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has submitted his resignation to President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials told CNN. Abbas has been locked in a power struggle with Arafat since taking office four months ago. Arafat is still considering the resignation, said Jibril Rajoub, Arafat’s National Security Adviser. Earlier a Palestinian official told CNN Arafat had accepted the resignation.
Bet his jaw started flapping.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, will play a caretaker role of the position until a new prime minister is sworn in, Palestinian Legislative Council member Saeb Erakat told CNN Radio. "I think this is a moment for us as Palestinians, I think now we have to look at the options available," Erakat said. "How Arafat will deal with the resignation — will he accept it, reject it, will he ask Abu Mazen to form a new cabinet? These are the questions we need to be concentrating on now."
Will he go to Disney World? No he won’t.
CNN’s Matthew Chance said that Abbas was giving the reasons for his decision to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in a closed door session which began at noon Saturday. Arafat is expected to address the council in a separate session around 6 p.m. Erakat said. Earlier, Erakat said Abbas’ resignation "is not an option," but acknowledged it was up to the prime minister to make that decision. The announcement of Abbas’s plans to quit came after 18 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council initiated a no-confidence motion for Abbas’ government to take place within the next two weeks, Erakat said. Abbas wanted control over security forces to help rein in militant groups that carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis. He has said he would not lift arms against the groups, but instead would seek to end their attacks through discussions.
Yeah. That worked.
Arafat has not been willing to cede power over the security forces.
Huh? I don’t really understand that sentence, except that Arafat hasn’t been willing to cede anything to anybody, unfortunately.
| This is Yasser's final kick at the corpse of the road map. In a rational world, his acceptance of Abbas' forced resignation should be his ticket to St Helena. In the actual world, he's banking on the idea that he can get enough Eurodips to buy the "elected president of the Paleostinian pee-pul" line to let him get away with putting a real puppet in the PM slot and retaining all the actual power himself. My guess is that he's got a better than 50-50 chance of pulling it off — and life in Intifadaland will return to Paleonormal. |
Followup, from Associated Press:
In Ramallah, there was confusion throughout the day about whether Arafat had accepted Abbas' resignation - and if he had, whether his decision was final. The veteran Palestinian leader had told a large gathering of legislators and Cabinet ministers that Abbas was now heading a caretaker government, implying Arafat agreed with his prime minister's decision. But he stopped short of confirming this in writing, as required by law.
| "Put my name on paper? We-e-e-ellll, I dunno..." |
An Abbas confidante, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister told him he felt abandoned by all sides and was deeply hurt by the events of the recent days. Abbas told a closed-door session of parliament that he would not change his mind. Reading from a prepared statement, he explained why he quit. Israel, he said, had not carried out its obligations under the road map, the United States had not enforced Israeli compliance and his detractors at home had constantly undermined him with "harsh and dangerous" incitement.
| Yasser had his chance, and he blew it. As usual. |
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