Palestinian leaders decided in the absence of President Yasser Arafat yesterday to carry out a plan to restore law and order in the West Bank and Gaza, a government minister said.
It was the first major decision announced by the Palestinian leadership since Arafat was flown to hospital in Paris on Oct. 29.
Officials said the plan was drafted in March and is more concerned with ending local lawlessness than reining in militants waging a four-year-old uprising -- a long-standing Israeli and international demand.
Although the plan was approved months ago by various armed factions, no action had been taken.
Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said it would now take effect immediately.
It calls for more security forces to be deployed and better coordination among them. It demands that militants stop carrying arms unless confronting Israeli forces and says the police, rather than gunmen, should deal with disturbances.
Arafat and other officials often promised action on the security front, but little ever happened. Arafat complained that the Palestinians were hamstrung by Israel's destruction of their forces during the uprising.
While briefing Israel's Cabinet, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said there were signs that Palestinian leaders were trying to curtail violence.
"There are indications that they are trying to close ranks and stop the Hamas terrorism, but there is no way of knowing if this will succeed," he said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie came under pressure from the armed factions on Saturday to give them decision-making powers in a temporary unified leadership they want if Arafat dies. He did not say he had agreed.
Yasser Arafat lay critically ill with liver failure yesterday and his condition was not improving, a Palestinian official said.
Israel, meanwhile, said it had finalized plans to bury the Palestinian president in the Gaza Strip.
Arafat wants to be buried in Jerusalem, which is holy both to Muslims and Jews, but Israeli officials refuse to bury him in land they say is part of Israel's indivisible capital.
Aides gave conflicting reports about the 75-year-old leader's health and concern grew about who will succeed him and the fate of Middle East peace efforts that have stalled.
Some aides said he was not in a coma. Others said his condition was so bad that he might be moved to Cairo, from where he could be flown home more quickly if he died.
"He has liver failure. His condition is not improving," said a Palestinian official in the West Bank who declined to be named. "One option being considered is moving him to Cairo."
The official said any decision to move Arafat could be taken only by the Palestinian leadership. He added that a low count of platelets, which help the blood clot, meant blood transfusions were proving difficult.
Doctors have ruled out leukemia but remain puzzled why Arafat's health deteriorated sharply last week at the military hospital in a southwest Paris suburb where he has been having tests since he was airlifted there from the West Bank.
A row is brewing over where to bury the man who personifies the struggle to establish a Palestinian state, a dream that Arafat has not fulfilled amidst a 4-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
"The defense establishment has completed preparations for an Arafat funeral in Gaza," political sources quoted Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as telling a Cabinet meeting.
"The moment we receive a Palestinian Authority request on the matter, we will implement final preparations. We still await a formal announcement of Arafat's death."
Israel allowed the Palestinian leader to be flown out of the West Bank more than a week ago. Returning him from France to Gaza would require similar permission.
Mohammad Dahlan, Arafat's former security chief in Gaza, said he would travel to Jordan during the day and then go to the West Bank to brief Palestinian leaders on the president's health. He was then expected to go to Cairo.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, on a visit to China, urged the Palestinians not to abandon efforts to end decades of conflict if Arafat dies.
"We would like to see a moderate Palestinian leadership that is taking the lead and moving towards a full implementation of the road map [international peace plan]," Shalom said.
Also See Story:
Successor to Yasser Arafat will `likely' not be elected
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS