West Bank
The new Palestinian prime minister has yielded control over security issues to Yasser Arafat. After weeks of tussling, Ahmed Qurei agreed to appoint an Arafat loyalist as the chief of police. Military affairs in general will be governed by the national security council, which Arafat will chair. Israel and the U.S. expressed disappointment. “This is a sad day for reform,” said Raanan Gissin, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “because we see that the control of the security services remains in the hands of Arafat’s cartel of terror.” Qurei’s predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, resigned this spring because he refused to give in to Arafat on the security issue.
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