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Arafat 'to name premier soon'
RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will nominate a prime minister for his restructured government next week, a U.N. spokesman said Friday. The Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization is expected to approve the new post next Friday, according to a spokesman for Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen. Roed-Larsen, who met with Arafat for an hour on Friday, said: "Mr. Arafat has informed me that he will call for a meeting of the PLO Central Council late next week and immediately thereafter, next Saturday, a meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council." The Central Council is a top decision-making body in the PLO. The Legislative Council, or Palestinian parliament, is expected to define the powers and duties of the new post. There have been unconfirmed reports that Mahmoud Abbas -- also known as Abu Mazen, the No. 2 figure in the Palestinian Authority -- may be appointed prime minister. Arafat bowed to international pressure in agreeing to appoint a prime minister to serve under him as head of the reformed Palestinian Authority government. Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said Palestinian officials sent a letter to Israeli authorities asking them to let members of the council travel to Ramallah to meet. Ra'anan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said there were no travel restrictions on Palestinian council members if they were not involved in terrorist actions. Sharon's new coalition government took power early Friday following a 66-48 vote by the 120-member Knesset. The prime minister presented the government to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on Thursday, calling the patchwork cabinet "the best possible government" for the future of the Jewish state. Sharon also flatly rejected two Palestinian demands: that Palestinians who fled Israel when the country was formed be allowed to return to their homes -- the so-called "right of return" -- and that the Palestinians be allowed to establish a capital in eastern Jerusalem. "Any diplomatic solution in the future must look after the historic security and strategic needs of Israel, and at the same time the Palestinians must drop their exaggerated desire for return of Palestinians within the territory of Israel," he said. "They must also give up any idea of dividing Jerusalem, which is Israel's eternal capital." Sharon's new government is a coalition between his own hardline Likud party; the National Religious Party, the National Union and Shinui.
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