Messages regarding Arafat’s resignation are becoming real

Washington confirmed that international mediators for the Middle East peace process (the USA, UN, EU, Russia) are going to meet on July 15 in the UN headquarters in New York. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the date has been determined, although it is not final.

The spokesman for the American foreign political department characterized the meeting between the ambassadors of the mentioned countries as useful and productive (the meeting took place last week in London). Boucher stated that major attention was paid to the issue of the participation of the international community in the reform of the Palestinian national administration.

Boucher stressed that the parties came to a mutual understanding regarding the importance of current reforms within political, security, legal structures, and in the economy of Palestine. The spokesman was cunning: there was no mutual understanding between mediators at all. Russia, as well as the EU, has a stable reflex as far as Arafat is concerned. Peace in the Middle East is impossible (today) without the “Rais.”

The Americans have another point of view regarding political procedures, and the Nobel Prize winner does not fit in with the American point of view. President Bush repeated during his speech at the press-conference in the White House that a change of the Palestinian leadership is the preliminary condition for the regulation of the Mideast conflict. The American president said that the reform of the Palestinian national autonomy was requisite for establishing a Palestinian state, which could put an end to terrorism, develop a legal system, and stop the plundering of international help.

According to the Americans, the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Qurei is the most honest Arab man. By the way, this name was mentioned on the list of Palestinian leader’s successors. Like father like son, so to speak. Well, this doesn't really matter: there are more and more rumors going being spread about Arafat’s coming resignation.

Al-Majd newspaper of Jordan has recently published an article, which was devoted to Arafat’s political future. The newspaper affirmed that Yasset Arafat was going to send in his resignation pursuant to the agreement between the USA, Israel,certain groups of the Palestinian autonomy administration, and the leadership of several Arab countries. The mentioned newspaper referred to senior officials from the administration of the Palestinian Authority.

Poor Arafat: the powerful pressure on the part of the USA is a very serious test, but Arafat is very good at this, very good. The Americans are rushing the situation, because the United States needs to get rid of him before the elections in January, when Yasser Arafat is going to nominate his candidacy again. If he does, he will inevitably win. If they make Arafat a scapegoat (this is exactly what’s happening at the moment) for the events on the West Bank and in Gaza Strip, then it will not be possible to avoid changes in the administration of Palestine.

The USA claimed that Arafat is hampering the peace process, that he is responsible for all the Palestinians who have died, and that poverty and the decline in living standards are the consequences of Arafat’s silly actions.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov

On the photo: Ahmed Qurei