WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: FORMER PALESTINIAN SECURITY CHIEF JIBRIL RAJOUB TELLS PRESIDENT ARAFAT IT WAS A MISTAKE TO REPLACE HIM / EGYPTIAN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF OMAR SULEIMEN HOLDS TALKS WITH ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN LEADERS

Record ID: 645616

  • Title: WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: FORMER PALESTINIAN SECURITY CHIEF JIBRIL RAJOUB TELLS PRESIDENT ARAFAT IT WAS A MISTAKE TO REPLACE HIM / EGYPTIAN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF OMAR SULEIMEN HOLDS TALKS WITH ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN LEADERS
  • Date: 7th July 2002
  • Summary: (W6) JERUSALEM (JULY 7, 2002) (REUTERS) SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER SHIMON PERES, SAYING: "I think Egypt wants sincerely to help the parties escape the present frozen situation because there is a great deal of difficulties to the Palestinian people, to Israel, a situation that nobody was interested in creating it and everybody is interested to bring an end to it. (REPORTER ASKS QUESTION) Egypt is a highly influential country in the Middle East. Egypt played in the past an important role in bringing the parties together and I hope it will do so in the future." SV: PERES DEPARTS Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA57Y23M2AA44N4PFDGKRF4NSA9
  • Story Text: Former Palestinian Security Chief Jibril Rajoub has said he met Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to tell him that he had made a mistake in replacing him with Zuhair Manasra, governor of the West Bank city of Jenin.
    But the ex-Palestinian security chief in the West Bank said his dismissal would not trigger a revolt despite protests that have called the Palestinian president's authority into question.
    Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has offered to mediate between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in efforts to end Israel's occupation of Palestinian towns in the West Bank and resume peace talks between the two sides.
    Rajoub, in an interview with Reuters, said on Sunday (July 7) he had met with Arafat after being dismissed and told him it was "a big mistake to appoint (this) new chief" -- Zuhair Manasra, governor of the West Bank city of Jenin.
    "(But) I don't think that there will be any rebellion or anything," Rajoub, speaking English, said in the interview conducted in Ramallah, the seat of Arafat's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
    "On the contrary, what happened today and yesterday was a normal reaction against this incorrect step which I hope will be corrected. But I have no fears or concerns about the internal situation," he said.
    Arafat has begun to shake up the command of his security services in the face of international pressure for democratic reforms to enable renewed political negotiations with Israel.
    He removed Rajoub, powerful head of the 4,000-strong Palestinian Preventive Security apparatus in the West Bank, last week and replaced him with a loyalist who had been a city governor, sparking unusually open dissent within security ranks.
    Security officers expressed dismay and said that if Rajoub had to go, he should be replaced by someone experienced within the ranks. Some indicated they would not work for Manasra.
    Palestinian sources said more than 100 top security officials refused in a rancorous meeting in Ramallah on Saturday to accept Arafat's appointment of Manasra.
    Around 1,000 Palestinians, mainly security men, marched through the West Bank city of Hebron in the biggest display of anger over Jibril Rajoub's dismissal yet, as an Egyptian envoy voiced concern to Israel about upheaval in Palestinian society.
    Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman had talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday in a fresh bid by Cairo to bridge the chasm between the two sides in the conflict.
    Suleiman told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Arab states would be destabilised if the Palestinian Authority collapsed in the wake of Israel's reoccupation of West Bank towns, Israeli political sources said.
    The Israeli army reoccupied seven of the eight largest West Bank towns after successive suicide bombings killed 26 Israelis in Jerusalem. Curfews were clamped on the towns, pinning down 700,000 people, and there have been no suicide attacks since.
    Suleiman met Arafat at the Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah, surrounded by the Israeli army, to show Egyptian support for the Palestinians and ask what Arafat wanted from a meeting of Russia, the United States, United Nations and European Union, set for July 15-16, a senior Arafat aide said.
    Nabil Abu Rdeinah said Arafat gave Suleiman a message for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urging him to keep up pressure on Israel and Western powers for an Israeli withdrawal.
    Egypt, like the rest of the Arab world, has demanded Israel withdraw troops and tanks from Palestinian towns.
    Suleiman met Arafat following a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres earlier on Sunday.
    Israeli radio said Suleiman told Peres that Israel must give Palestinians hope and that he had lobbied for the preservation of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
    After meeting Suleiman, Peres said, "I think Egypt wants sincerely to help the parties escape the present frozen situation because there is a great deal of difficulties to the Palestinian people, to Israel, a situation that nobody was interested in creating it and everybody is interested to bring an end to it".
    "Egypt is a highly influential country in the Middle East.
    Egypt played in the past an important role in bringing the parties together and I hope it will do so in the future,"
    added Peres.
    At least 1,436 Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy who was hit by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank on June 29 and died of his wounds on Sunday, and 548 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.
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