Unpredictable DEBKA reports that the new Palestinian PM is in grave danger from Yasser Arafat. The intended summit between Bush, Abbas, and Sharon is intended to challenge Arafat's standing, so this seems quite plausible. Will be interesting to watch this drama unfold. Removing Arafat is the linchpin to progress -- but even the Israelis have declined to just kill him. He must be rendered irrelevant.
DEBKAfile’s US and Israeli security sources report increasing signs that Yasser Arafat is now seriously gunning for the new Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas. He will do anything to abort the summit expected to take place in early June with President George W. Bush and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Arafat cannot abide the notion of any top-level conference going forward without him. The plot he is thought to be preparing would inculpate Israel for any harm befalling Abu Mazen or his associates. He would thus show the Palestinians and the Muslim world that his arm is still long and that if anyone is bent on sabotaging the prospects of peace it is Israel.Hoping to blunt the threat, our sources reveal the Americans are trying to go through Europeans with access to Arafat. US secretary of state Colin Powell asked French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin to take with him on his visit to Arafat in Ramallah Monday, May 26, a last warning from Washington: Stop trying to disempower or eliminate Abu Mazen. If you continue to obstruct Washington’s plans for the region you risk a direct American reprisal.
via DEBKA
Posted by Alan at May 26, 2003 08:09 AM