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Deadline looms in Palestinian Cabinet stalemateEgypt to send intelligence chief to discuss compromise
RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and his prime minister-designate remained sharply at odds Tuesday over the makeup of a new Palestinian government. Palestinian officials are working against a midnight Wednesday deadline to find a solution that will satisfy both Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, the prime minister-designate widely known as Abu Mazen. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak plans to send a high-level Egyptian official to Ramallah to meet with Arafat and Mazen in a last-minute effort to broker a compromise between the two men, Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, told CNN. Omar Suleiman, Egypt's intelligence chief, will hold separate talks with both men. Both men have not met since Saturday night, when Abbas stormed out of a Fatah Central Committee meeting. They have been communicating through intermediaries since. The differences between the men are rooted in a power struggle, with Arafat seeking to retain as much control over the Palestinian Authority as he can, sources told CNN. Abbas has said he has no intention of being prime minister without having genuine authority on the job. Abbas and Arafat have differed over whether former Gaza Preventative Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan will be in the government. Abbas wants Dahlan to be in charge of security, but Arafat favors Hani el-Hasan, the current interior minister and an Arafat loyalist. Dahlan and Abbas were meeting Tuesday in Ramallah, Palestinian sources told CNN. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Tuesday that the key differences between the men center around Abbas's plans to dismantle the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, and his intentions to take on Hamas and Islamic Jihad. All are militant groups that have claimed responsibility for terror actions. The U.S. State Department has designated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas and Islamic Jihad as foreign terrorist organizations. The newspaper said Abbas wants "sole authority over the disarming of armed factions, while Arafat rejects the demand, fearing that the disarming of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades would lead to a civil war. The two also have not reached an agreement as to how to deal with the other armed factions." Arafat under pressure to yieldArafat has come under enormous pressure from the international community, including the United States, Russia, the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab world, to yield to Abbas. The Madrid quartet -- comprising the United States, the United Nations, the EU and Russia -- has agreed to publish a so-called road map for Middle East peace once a Palestinian prime minister and a new government take office. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday that President Bush "continues to keep an eye on the situation. He has high hopes that an agreement on a Cabinet will be reached." And British Prime Minister Tony Blair phoned Arafat, a symbol of the Palestinian people's national movement, to urge him to break the deadlock, according to a Palestinian official. The official said Arafat assured Blair he is attempting to find a solution. But a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee ended Tuesday with the deadlock persisting. Arafat attended but Abbas didn't. "Things are very difficult," a Palestinian official close to Arafat said on condition of anonymity. "There are serious efforts being exerted to settle the situation." A senior U.S. State Department official said Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Monday -- and other officials in the region in recent days -- in an effort to break the stalemate between Arafat and Abbas. Powell's message: It's "time for Arafat to back off," the official said. Under Palestinian legal procedures, if a new government is not formed by midnight Wednesday, Arafat, in his role as president, would have to appoint someone else to come up with a Cabinet list. Palestinian sources said on Monday that Arafat has been quietly looking for alternatives. Some Palestinian sources stressed that the issue is not solely about one minister over another, but about the future of the Palestinian government, Arafat's political future and the fate of the Palestinian people. "Palestinians are going through transformations that were not there before," said a Palestinian official. This is about "labor pains for a new era," the official added. "The danger is if [Abbas and Arafat] don't agree, everybody will pay the price, not only Arafat, not only Abu Mazen, but our people," said another Palestinian source, saying the next 24 hours will be critical. -- CNN correspondents Jerrold Kessel, Andrea Koppel and Kelly Wallace contributed to this report.
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