Palestinian leaders to transfer Arafat powers
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-11 16:00

Palestinian leaders prepared on Thursday to transfer President Yasser Arafat's powers to three key figures who will take on the most important roles he held, officials said.

Under Palestinian law, Arafat will be replaced as caretaker president of the Palestinian Authority by constitutional successor and parliamentary speaker Rawhi Fattouh, who is meant to organize elections within 60 days.

But just as important will be reform-minded former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas who is tipped to succeed Arafat as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinians' highest decision-making body.

Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, another moderate, is expected to have greater powers over security bodies than he held under Arafat.

"We are going to implement the basic law," PLO executive member Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters. "We will start from today and will have a meeting soon."

Arafat was declared dead in a French hospital on Thursday, aged 75. An icon of the Palestinian struggle for statehood, he was an autocratic ruler and had never clearly anointed a successor.

Palestinian officials and political analysts hope a partnership between Abbas, Fattouh and Qurie would create a more transparent political model that could tackle reforms in the Authority.

"Maybe what the Palestinians need now is less of an icon and more of a structure for a government," Edward Abington, an adviser to the Palestinian Authority in the United States and a former U.S. Consul in Jerusalem, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Israel holds out the possibility of renewing peace talks, stalled since early on in the uprising, if a new leadership puts a halt to attacks on Israelis.

But some fear Arafat's departure will trigger a new era of chaos as various Palestinian factions jockey for power.

"If the new Palestinian leadership acts to stop terror and curb violence...it will be possible to return to the political process and negotiations," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a statement on Wednesday.

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