Arafat's successor?
Palestine, Politics, 2/13/1998

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly told US president Bill Clinton that his successor would be Mahmoud Abbas, currently deputy head of the PLO.

"When my time will come, I will be replaced by my brother, Abu Mazen," Arafat was quoted as telling Clinton, using Abass's nom de guerre, during a January 22 meeting at the White House, the London-based Foreign Report said.

The February 5 edition of the Foreign Report, excerpts of which were published in the Salem Post on Wednesday, quoted US sources as recounting how Arafat told Clinton the Palestinians would "never give up" their struggle for an independent state.

"The Palestinian struggle will continue, and the struggle will carry on for rations, if it will be needed, when my time will come, I will be replaced by my brother, Abu Mazen," Arafat was quoted as saying.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was in Washington with Arafat, could neither confirm nor deny the report. Erekat said Clinton, Arafat and Abbas held a private meeting on January 22 before being joined by himself and other aides.

"I have never heard anything about this, but I was not at all in the meeting. I don't know about it," Erekat said.

Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, is usually a very cautious man.He prefers to operate away from day-to-day inter-Palestinian frictions and differences. He is described as a suitable figure in the PLO to take over after Arafat, although he never admits it.

Constitutionally, however, it is Abu Ala', speaker of the Legislative Council, who would succeed Arafat for two months during which time elections would be held. But Abu Mazen seems to have better chances, though he and Abu Ala' almost started together in the rank and file of Fatah.

Abu Mazen enjoys the support of the wealthy Gulf states and of many countries in the West, including the US, and the Palestinians admit that any successor to Arafat can never succeed without the backing of these two forces: the US with its political power and the Gulf states with their financial support.

It should be noted that much of the information regarding a successor are based on speculation.

Arafat, 69, has headed the PLO for decades and took over the Palestinian Authority when it was created in 1994 under the Oslo peace accords.

He was elected president of the authority in January 1996 and later the same year named Abbas as deputy leader of the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

The question of who will succeed Arafat, widely believed to be the only Palestinian leader with the power and authority to gain popular support, has surfaced in recent months due to signs the veteran leader could be having health problems.

The succession rumors have coincided with a month-old deadlock in Israeli - Palestinian peace negotiations and criticism among Palestinians of corruption and mismanagement inside the Palestinian Authority.

Previous Stories:
  Arafat faces crisis as minister resigns   (1/27/1998)
  Power struggle within Palestine as a result of Arafat's illness?   (11/18/1997)

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