Egypt call on Arafat to reform Fatah, change leaders of Palestinian security department

A high ranking Palestinian official said that Egypt had asked the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to take a series of arrangements, including introducing reforms into the Fatah movement, and changing the leaders of the security department.

The official explained that the Egyptian request was conveyed to the highest levels in the Egyptian administration during telephone calls with Arafat and through delegates that met with him recently in Ramullah.

The official added that the request comes in the framework of "urgent Egyptian efforts to get out of the bottleneck and to resume political talks between Israel and the Palestinians." The official added that the Egyptians "asked Arafat to start fundamental reforms inside the Fatah movement, which is considered the backbone of the Palestinian movement, and the pillar of the Palestinian leadership, especially that no fundamental reforms can be achieved inside the Palestinian authority without passing first through Fatah."

The second Egyptian request pertains to the need "of changing leaders of current security leaders because of the inability which hit their departments and their refrain from taking tangible steps towards re-organizing these departments."

The Egyptian requests also includes the need to work for convening a summit meeting between the Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurei' and his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon and "to work for improving the atmospheres between the two sides." On the other hand, a military spokesman said that the Israeli army arrested on Tuesday evening 11 Palestinians in the West Bank, most of them are Hamas members.