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Dahlan Says He Won’t Run Against Arafat
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| "As long as the Israelis are against Arafat, I'm with him,” says Dahlan. |
LONDON,
July 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Former Palestinian security
official Mohammed Dahlan told a British daily newspaper Tuesday, July
2, that he would not stand against Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
while Israel calls for him to be replaced.
“As
long as the Israelis are against Arafat, I’m with him - whatever
reservations I have about some of the decisions that have been
made,” Dahlan told the Guardian.
Dahlan,
who stepped down as head of Palestinian security in Gaza last month,
has been widely regarded as the U.S. and Israel’s preferred
successor to Arafat, the paper said, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
U.S.
President George W. Bush called last week for Palestinians to dump
Arafat if they wanted Washington's support in building their own
state.
Dahlan
told the left-wing daily that Bush’s intervention has led to latest
opinion polls showing nine out of 10 Palestinians would vote for
Arafat in January’s elections, said AFP.
The
European Union, Russia and Britain all distanced themselves from
Washington's call and the paper says Dahlan’s comments support
“the European view that Bush made a misjudgment.”
Without
the U.S. ultimatum, Dahlan would almost certainly have been a
contender, reported AFP.
While
Arafat is under siege, “it would be wrong to criticize him; that
would only serve Israel and America,” Dahlan wrote in the paper.
“There is no question of changing the leadership in these
circumstances.”
He
also warned the U.S. against interfering. “If they try to expel or
kill him, they will come to regret it bitterly.
“Bush
is now effectively demanding a coup d’ etat against Arafat because
the American administration says even if he is re-elected in new
elections, it will not deal with him.”
Meanwhile,
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted Monday, July 1, that
Washington was not trying to dictate who the Palestinian people choose
to be their leader, despite demanding the ouster of Arafat.
The
United States is looking to envoys from the diplomatic “quartet”
on the Middle East to formulate a new work plan toward Palestinian
reforms, including a change in leadership, Powell said, AFP reported.
The
envoys are meeting Tuesday in London and, depending on their progress,
Powell would travel abroad to meet with his European and Arab
colleagues to polish the plan, he told AFP.
Powell
said the quartet envoys - from the United States, the European Union,
Russia and the United Nations - would each bring ideas on how to
proceed with efforts to “transform” the Palestinian leadership in
line with the strategy U.S. President George W. Bush announced last
week.
“What
Bill Burns will be doing with his Madrid quartet colleagues is
examining what might be done to transform the leadership, the kind of
work plan that might be appropriate, what security changes might be
appropriate, how can we get going and look for opportunities to work
with Palestinian leaders,” Powell said.
Powell
referred to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
William Burns who will meet with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, Russian
envoy Andrei Vdovin and their E.U. counterpart Miguel Moratinos in the
British capital.
Burns
will then travel on to Paris for a meeting with French officials, a
senior State Department official said.
The
quartet will also “see if there are Palestinian leaders who are
willing to respond in the appropriate way to the needs of the
Palestinian people and whether or not Chairman Arafat or others in the
leadership will empower these folks to undertake transformation,” he
said.
Powell
said he could not predict whether the London meeting would produce
anything solid, but made clear he expected progress toward a new plan
that would lay out in detail the specifics of how to move forward with
Bush's strategy.
“I
don't know that Bill, in one meeting, will come out from the room with
a work plan to be announced,” Powell said, adding quickly, however,
that he expected to meet with foreign ministers from the quartet and
from Arab nations soon afterward.
“When
each of the quartet members have a chance to go back and speak to
their principals, I will be looking for an opportunity to meet them
and also at some point meet with the Arab leaders as we move forward
with this,” he said.
Powell
said there was not yet a timetable for his follow-up meetings, but he
signaled they would happen outside the United States, saying the U.S.
decision not to deal with Arafat would not likely complicate his
mission.
He
maintained that the United States was not trying to tell the
Palestinians how to vote in elections in January, saying that his
comments on Sunday to the effect that Arafat had to go did not
constitute an ultimatum.
“I
in no way wanted to imply yesterday [Sunday] ... that we are dictating
to the Palestinian people who they should elect as their leaders,”
he said.
“It
is up to Palestinian people to make this choice,” Powell said.
“But I don’t think there is anything out of bounds by suggesting
to them that if the choice they make is the current leadership, then
we recognize that they made that choice but they shouldn't expect us
now to suddenly find favor with a leadership that we have found lack
of favor with."
"We
need a new dynamic and a new leadership," Powell said, claiming
that Bush's proposals had the broad support of foreign leaders,
including in Europe and in the Arab world.
European
Commission President Romano Prodi has said that the E.U. would
continue its dialogue with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat if he
is re-elected in January, despite US calls for his ouster.
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