"It is a major mistake to keep up contact with Arafat," Sharon

GAZA CITY, July 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – While the Israeli army demolished a Palestinian house in Rafah, in its first such action in the Gaza Strip since main Palestinian resistance movements declared a ceasefire last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that Arafat must be sidelined if progress is to be made towards Middle East peace.

"It is a major mistake to keep up contact with Arafat because he is undermining (Palestinian Prime Minister) Abu Mazen's government," Sharon told the British Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"Arafat still controls the larger part of their armed forces, and part of the money, and he has got all those telephone calls from leaders, mostly from Europe ," Sharon said.

"Every act of this nature only postpones progress. Most European countries are doing that. They are undermining Abu Mazen," Sharon said.

Sharon is due to arrive in Britain on Sunday, July 13, for meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He will also be meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Monday then holding talks with the leaders of the Jewish community on Tuesday.

The London visit is being seen as an attempt to mend fences between Britain and Israel months after relations between the two hit a new low after Straw upset Sharon by openly taking the Palestinian side while on a visit to Iran last October.

And further insult was caused after Straw suggested in the run-up to the Iraq war that the international community was acting with double standards for using force to implement UN resolutions against Baghdad while Israel was able to ignore other rulings by the world body with apparent impunity.

Observers in the Middle East believe Sharon ’s bringing up of Arafat removal at this stage could be an attempt to shed the light on reported inner Palestinian power struggle, thus, avoiding meeting Israel ’s commitments to peace as guidelined in the peace roadmap.

In another development, the Israeli army demolished a three-storey house near the border with Egypt on Friday, July 11, using bulldozers and without giving prior warning to residents, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted a Palestinian security source as saying.

Israeli forces also opened fire on Palestinian dwellings at the Khan Younis refugee camp, and at a Palestinian security post, without causing any injuries, said the source.

The Israeli escalation came as the ranking Egyptian security delegation wrapped up fruitful talks with Palestinian factions with the aim of entrenching the fledgling three-month truce with Israel, while Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is expected to arrive in the Palestinian territories Saturday or Sunday for more talks.

Fatah Elections 

"Elections must be organized for the central committee," Dahlan

Meanwhile, Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan called Saturday, July 12, for elections to the central committee of Fatah, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's movement.

"Elections must be organized for the central committee, whose members were elected 13 years ago, so that no one has joined this body since the two  Intifadas (the first of which ended in 1993 and the second began in September 2000)," AFP  quoted Dahlan as saying.

"In its current form the central committee does not have the means to take decisions," he told journalists.

On Tuesday, July 8, Abbas resigned from the central committee after a stormy meeting at which he came under diatribe over his approach with Israel .

Abbas was a cofounder of Fatah, the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization, along with Arafat, who chairs the central committee.

Abbas also challenged Fatah to come up with a better policy, and said he would resign as prime minister if it managed to do so.

Asked about the dissensions, Dahlan said that "president Arafat is the only one able to take decisions concerning a reform of the Fatah and the Palestinians."

He added, using the noms de guerre of Arafat and Abbas respectively: "I am a member of Fatah, my positions are dependent on my brothers Abu Ammar and Abu Mazen, but with regard to Fatah as a movement, my position is determined by Abu Ammar."

Dahlan, who met Thursday, July 10, with Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, said that Israel could complete its withdrawal from occupied West Bank cities which it began last week with Bethlehem "within six weeks if there is no problem."

On the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, he said, "We have rejected the Israeli criteria for their release. It is a sensitive matter and Israel must review its criteria fundamentally."