(London Times) - Yasser Arafat countered American and Israeli efforts to sideline him by appointing his own man to carry out a shake-up of the Palestinian security services. He installed Jibril Rajoub as his National Security Adviser, in flagrant defiance of demands from Israel and the U.S. that he surrender his powers to enable Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan to clamp down on militant groups. Rajoub has a strong power base in the West Bank, where Dahlan, a native of Gaza, is politically weak. Arafat also promoted Rajoub to the rank of general, making him senior to Dahlan, who holds only the rank of colonel.
2003-08-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive