Fatah has abandoned the idea of limiting some powers of Yasser Arafat by appointing a prime minister, officials said Wednesday.
During a meeting of Fatah's Central Committee with Arafat late Tuesday, one of those present raised the issue, but it was then dropped, Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah member, said Wednesday, according to AP.
"The consensus of the members is that the prime minister should be appointed after the establishment of a Palestinian state and drafting a constitution," Shaath said.
In another development, Israeli explosives experts defused a pipe bomb at a gas station in the northern Israeli city of Afula. In the West Bank village of Tamoun, Israeli troops blew up the two-story home of an activist in the Islamic Jihad group who was responsible for a deadly shooting attack on a Jewish settlement. Fifteen people were made homeless in the demolition, witnesses said.
Elsewhere, an Israeli unit arrested the head of a pro-Iraqi Palestinian faction that has funneled money from Baghdad to relatives of Palestinian activists and others killed in two years of fighting with Israel.
Rakad Salem, head of the Arab Liberation Front, was arrested during a raid of his house in the West Bank town of Ramallah, members of the group said. Troops searched the house and seized documents, the group said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
