Arafat out or money stops says US

JERICHO - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called elections for January and plans to run again despite United States President George W. Bush's appeal to Palestinians to dump their longtime leader.

A blueprint for new elections and sweeping institutional reforms was unveiled yesterday, two days after Bush pressed Palestinians to elect leaders "not compromised by terror" as a condition for creating a Palestinian state.

But the US President stepped up pressure on Arafat, who has ignored Bush's call for him to be removed, by saying the US would cut off money to the Palestinians if a meaningful programme of reform was not begun.

"I've got confidence in the Palestinians, when they understand fully what we're saying, that they'll make the right decisions," Bush said.

"I can assure you, we won't be putting money into a society which is not transparent and corrupt, and I suspect other countries won't either."

Palestinian Cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said Arafat would stand for re-election. Bush's dilemma is that polls show Palestinians would probably give Arafat a fresh mandate in what would be the first Palestinian elections since 1996.

Israeli forces have reoccupied Palestinian cities in the past week after two suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis.

Troops have kept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians locked in their homes under curfew and Arafat's West Bank headquarters has been surrounded by tanks.

"Elections cannot be carried out with tanks in every street. Voters cannot register while they are confined to their homes," Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.

A senior US official said yesterday that before deciding on his call for Arafat's removal, Bush received intelligence showing the Palestinian leader helped finance a group behind suicide bombings in Israel. Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdainah dismissed it as "Israeli propaganda".

US allies, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, showed little enthusiasm for pushing Arafat aside.

Arafat has denied Bush's remarks were directed against him. He said Palestinians alone would choose their leaders.

In another boost for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a Brussels appeals court has thrown out a genocide suit against him, ruling his absence from Belgium meant he could not be investigated there over the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Sharon was Defence Minister when an Israeli-backed Lebanese militia killed hundreds of refugees at Beirut's Sabra and Shatila camps in an area under Israeli control.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

Related links