Palestinian Ministers Meet With Top U.S. Officials

WASHINGTON, August 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A team of senior Palestinian ministers was to enter talks with top U.S. officials Thursday, August 8, warning of "chaos" if U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration’s hopes of seeing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat replaced come to fruition.

Saeb Erakat, a veteran negotiator heading the Palestinian team, warned Wednesday, August 7, there could be no question of Arafat being marginalized and made his loyalties clear, taking issue with comments Bush made, saying the Palestinian people are the only ones who can choose their leader.

"Where do you think I come from, Mars? I'm part of Arafat's leadership," he said in response to questions at the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine think-tank.

"President Arafat leads the Palestinian Authority, and I hope this will be a question for the Palestinian people and not for anybody else... We all know the alternative to Arafat is chaos," said Erakat.

And he suggested that Arafat's fate was being used as pretext for distraction from the real issues.

"Do you think [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon cares if the Palestinians are ruled by Atilla the Hun or a boy scout?... The issue is that a vicious cycle is continuing, the settlement activities are continuing. The shortest way to beef up security for Israelis and Palestinians is to end this Israeli occupation," he said.

The ministers were to meet Secretary of State Colin Powell as meetings with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice ended.

Their deliberations will represent the most significant contacts in Washington between Palestinians and U.S. officials since Bush declared in June that Arafat must be replaced with leaders he described as "not compromised by terror" if a Palestinian state is to become reality, a policy statement only supported by Israel.

Evidence of the battle for the soul of U.S. Middle East policy burst into the open Tuesday, August 6, when the Palestinian mission was jolted by harsh words by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who accused the Palestinian Authority of being "involved with terrorist activities."

He also referred to Gaza and the West Bank as "so-called" occupied territories.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, often seen as keeping Rumsfeld company on the hawkish wing of the administration's Middle East policy, cast further doubt on the current leadership's suitability to lead a Palestinian state.

"We believe that is not possible, after years of effort, unless there's some fundamental changes in the Palestinian entity. So we pushed aggressively for reform," he said Wednesday in San Francisco.

The State Department, usually seen as less hawkish on the conflict than Rumsfeld and his allies, on Wednesday sidestepped questions over whether the defense secretary's remarks contradicted U.S. policy.

Spokesman Philip Reeker noted the Palestinian Authority had not been designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, but added, "Let there be no doubt that our focus is very much on having a zero tolerance for terrorism."

Despite opposition from its European and Arab partners, Washington has adopted a new policy since Bush's speech ruling out any talks with Arafat, a policy it is now stuck with, but finding itself in need of discussing peace moves with members of his government.

Powell said the United States wanted to talk only to Palestinians "empowered by the Palestinian community" and that there was "no specific plan for Arafat," reports news agencies.

Reeker said the U.S. side would press the Palestinians for reform and a renewal of security cooperation with Israel.

"We very much want to see a restoration of calm to renew hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike," he said Wednesday. "So we'll look forward to those meetings."

Joining Erakat on the Palestinian delegation is Interior Minister General Abdel-Razaq al-Yahiya and Economy Minister Maher al-Masri.

The visiting Palestinian delegation is likely to come under pressure to move faster on reforming the Palestinian Authority, reports news agencies.

State Department officials said they were particularly keen to hear Al-Yahiya's opinions on security.

The Palestinian side has stressed that as well as security and economic issues, the talks will focus on the "humanitarian disaster" faced by the Palestinian people.

Erakat said the Palestinian Authority was already reforming when Bush called for it, and that Palestinians were witnessing "deform" because of Israel's military campaign and restrictions on their movements, reports news agencies.