Interior portfolio major obstacle for PNA cabinet

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 06, 2003

Interior portfolio major obstacle for PNA cabinet

The appointment of a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) interior minister has become a bone of contention between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his premiers.

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The appointment of a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) interior minister has become a bone of contention between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his premiers.

Now it is clear that if the incumbent Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Arafat do not agree on the interior portfolio, the PNA emergency cabinet will have to resign, just as what happened to the former cabinet chaired by Mahmoud Abbas.

Mohamed Dahlan, former minister for internal security affairs in Abbas' cabinet, slammed the argument over the competences of the interior minister.

Some friends asked me to take the post, but I refused because I didn't want to tie my future with such an authority, he told Israel Radio in Gaza.

However, a closer look at the Palestinian political situation indicated that Arafat and Qurei could reach a final agreement over this issue.

"A solution would be adopted to form a cabinet which comprises an interior minister," said Abbas Zaki, member of the Fatah movement central committee.

Palestinian analysts expected that Qurei's cabinet would face the same obstacles as the former cabinet of Abbas, such as US administration's supportive policy towards Israel and Arafat's determination to keep his control over the PNA and its security apparatuses.

The dispute over the interior portfolio is just one of the problems facing Qurei's new cabinet, the analysts said.

"This situation would make Palestinians underestimate the cabinet's credibility as long as they don't make any security or political achievements, and make the cabinet lose its credibility from the international community," Palestinian analyst Abdullah Al-Hourani said.

In the midst of all the pessimism and cynical expectations on the fate of Qurei's new cabinet, Al-Hourani suggested an international protection which would automatically dissolve the PNA.

"In light of what Palestinians have been going through, we can only think of United Nations' protection and the dismantling of the PNA," he said.

Qurei's new cabinet will be formed amid many problems, which were the main reasons behind the collapse of the former PNA cabinet and have not been solved yet, some analysts predicted.

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