Palestinian cabinet approved

A new Palestinian cabinet with a significant injection of younger figures from outside front line politics was finally approved by parliamentarians yesterday after President Mahmoud Abbas had intervened to end a three-day political crisis.

Several politicians hailed yesterday's decision as heralding a new era for the Palestinian Authority, long criticised by the Palestinian public for being inefficient and tainted by corruption. Mr Abbas himself said of the new Cabinet: "They are young and professional, and I think they are capable of carrying out their jobs. We have chosen them very carefully."

The Palestinian Legislative Council voted by 54 to 12 to back a new list of cabinet ministers after three days of infighting which weakened the position of the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and -at least for now-strengthened that of Mr Abbas.

Although Mr Abbas's intervention saved his Prime Minister in the short term there was speculation that Mr Qureia could lose his post in July in the wake of a crisis which began when PLC members demonstrated a new independence by revolting against his original Cabinet proposals.

Opponents argued that his planned Cabinet contained too many of those who had been ministers in the era of Yasser Arafat.

The row, which had deepened when Mr Qureia found he also could not secure backing for a dramatically different second list, had threatened to overshadow and even undermine next week's international conference in London to bolster the Palestinian Authority.

Among the most notable appointments was that of the new interior minister Nasser Yousef, who as a security chief in the late nineties played a prominent part in clamping down on the armed factions and subsequently quarrelled openly with Yasser Arafat. He was joined in the new Cabinet by Mohammed Dahlan, the new civil affairs minister who has re-emerged as an Abbas ally and is viewed favourably by US policymakers.

Salaam Fayed, the widely respected finance ministers retains his post while the previous Justice Minister, Nahed Ar-Rayyes, who had attracted criticism at home and abroad, has been replaced.

Opinion was nevertheless divided over how far the new Cabinet represented a radical break with the past. Hanan Ashrawi, a PLC member who had been among those most strongly opposed to Mr Qureia's orginal choices declared: "It's a turning point in the rationale, the approach and the methodology of forming Cabinets, in going beyond political patronage ...and to look for people who can deliver."

But though the new Cabinet is significantly more welcome to Mr Abbas than Mr Qureia's original proposals, it still reflects a compromise between competing interests in Fatah which, while divided, continues to dominate the PA. The list was approved in advance by Fatah on Wednesday night after Mr Abbas warned them that the world was watching the unfolding crisis.

Nabil Shaath, a long standing Fatah figure under Mr Arafat who becomes Deputy Prime Minister, was with Mr Qureia himself exempted from a new "separation of powers" -strongly criticised by some independent and Fatah members-precluding PLC members from ministerial office. He is replaced as Foreign Minister by Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinians' UN envoy and Yasser Arafat's nephew. While another long standing Fatah PLC member Saeb Erekat leaves the Cabinet, he will retain a key negotiating post.

Said Zidani, a prominent Palestinian analyst, pointed out yesterday that the ten new "technocrats" -drawn from professions like the law, accountancy and engineering-were Fatah loyalists like the large majority of the Cabinet. He said the changes also reflected Mr Abbas's desire to see the Cabinet concentrate on domestic affairs and reform while he and his allies would take the lead in negotiations with Israel and the international community.

Dr Shaath said that the new Cabinet reflected "a combination of rejuvenation and continuity which is what every political system needs."

- INDEPENDENT