Saudis, Egyptians pressure Arafat to stamp out terror
By Aluf Benn
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are stepping up their pressure on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to take substantive action against terrorism.
Mohammed Dahlan, head of Preventive Security in Gaza, was invited yesterday to Cairo to meet with Omer Suleiman, head of Egypt's intelligence services. Dahlan, together with Nabil Sha'ath, the Palestinian liaison with the Saudis, took part in this past weekend's Egyptian-Saudi-Syrian summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
According to intelligence reports in Jerusalem, Dahlan recently sent his family out of the territories due to power struggles inside the PA. The intelligence assessments say Arafat is under external and domestic pressure for reforms that would cut back on his authority.
Last week, Suleiman visited Ramallah as part of a top-level Egyptian delegation that included Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and presidential adviser Osama el Baz. The Egyptian message to Arafat was blunt: Stop the terror. Arafat was told to make sure that Fatah stays out of terrorism, and that he should stop "classifying" terror according to whether it is inside the territories or inside Israel proper. He was told that the days of indecision are over and that he must act, while the Saudis are "turning off the faucet" to Hamas and telling the Islamic fundamentalist group to cease all terror attacks.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau and the American administration are awaiting the results of the Egyptian-Saudi move and the effect the power struggles inside the PA will have on Arafat's stature. The United States has meanwhile slowed down the pace of its efforts; CIA Director George Tenet once again has postponed a trip to the region, saying he will not come until the end of the month.
The CIA and State Department, under instructions from the White House, are formulating proposed reforms for the PA, including the establishment of a unified Palestinian security force.
Dahlan and his main competitor - and West Bank counterpart - Jibril Rajoub have separately sent Washington their proposals for a new PA security force.
That is apparently what was meant when a senior U.S. official said after the Sharon meeting with President George W. Bush that "two senior PA security officials" have expressed to the Americans support for the reform.
Administration officials are also encouraged by what they heard from Khalil Shkaki, the premier pollster in the territories and head of a Ramallah-based think tank, who visited Washington before Sharon and met with administration officials and reporters. He told his hosts, according to a source close to the administration, that Arafat "is ripe" for moving into a symbolic role.
Mohammed Rashid, Arafat's confidante and financial adviser, is in Europe this week, and in conversations with European leaders has said that any reform that circumvents Arafat, as Sharon wants, will not work. Rashid is one of the main targets of Palestinian criticism of alleged corruption in the PA.
The Europeans are skeptical about building a unified Palestinian security force, believing that the existing groups will refuse to give up power. At most, one of the security forces could be strengthened, becoming the dominant power. Rajoub is working to consolidate his position, by combining his preventive security forces with Tanzim, creating a collective Tanzim leadership for the West Bank to fill the vacuum left by the arrest of Marwan Barghouti.
Sharon yesterday did some damage control after his symbolic defeat at the Likud Central Committee. He sent a message to the Americans that they have no reason to worry about government policy changing as a result of the Likud vote.
haaretzdaily.com |
