Arafat to make vast changes in his Authority

The Lebanese daily al-Sharq said on Wednesday, according to high ranking Palestinian sources that the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat will start basic changes in his authority and in the Fatah movement, noting that Arafat will assign the chief Palestinian negotiators in Madrid Haidar Abdul Shafi to chair a plenary government including ministries and all Palestinian security departments.

In its Wednesday's issued, the paper added that Arafat will appoint provisional leaderships for the Fatah movement after making vast "purification" operation in the lines of the movement's leadership on which he had remarked during his siege by the Israelis.

As for the leader of the Palestinian preventive security in the West Bank Jibril al-Rajjoub, the inclination is that he will be tried under the charge of "highest treason." This will be made in line with the consent of Hamas movement, the paper said.