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Palestinian vote key to Mideast peace plan
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Palestinian parliament will vote Tuesday on the proposed new Cabinet -- the final step before the expected release of a new Mideast peace plan and a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas, commonly known as Abu Mazen, needs to secure a simple majority of the 88-member Palestinian Legislative Council. While approval is not guaranteed, many Palestinians believe it is likely especially since Palestinian President Yasser Arafat gave the Cabinet his approval late Wednesday. "We have been officially invited to the council Tuesday with one item on the agenda and that is a vote of confidence for the Abu Mazen Cabinet and its program," Saeb Erakat, the current chief Palestinian negotiator, told CNN. Arafat's approval came just hours before Abu Mazen was required, under Palestinian legal procedure, to put his Cabinet together or Arafat could pick another prime minister. The 11th-hour approval came after a tense standoff between the two men as they battled over who would hold what powers and who would be in the Cabinet. Arafat was forced to accept Muhammad Dahlan, a former head of Palestinian Security Services in Gaza, to take on a senior role in charge of security in the new government. Abu Mazen also had to make compromises by giving Cabinet jobs to more Arafat loyalists and current Cabinet members than he had originally intended. Intense international pressure and some last-minute shuttle diplomacy by an Egyptian presidential envoy eventually brokered the agreed Cabinet. At the Tuesday session, Arafat and Abu Mazen will each deliver speeches and then the floor will be opened up to any council member who wishes to speak, Erakat said. Following the conclusion of the statements, parliament members will vote on the new Cabinet. Erakat told CNN that during a meeting with Abu Mazen Saturday morning, it was decided he would maintain his role as chief Palestinian negotiator, serving as minister of negotiations in the new government. Hazards on the road to peaceThe United States and Britain have said that once Abu Mazen's Cabinet is approved and sworn in, the so-called "road map" for Middle East peace paving the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005, will be presented to both sides. The draft "road map" was finalized in December by the Mideast quartet -- the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union. Washington has refused to deal with Arafat and said it would only publish the peace plan after a prime minister with real powers was in place. Erakat, who said he met with representatives from the United States, Russia and the E.U. Friday, said he was told the "road map" will be "introduced unaltered the day Abu Mazen's government will get a vote of confidence in the legislative Council." "I reiterated to them that all the Palestinian security obligations emanating from the road map will be respected by us," he added. However, the "road map" is likely to face early hazards, with the Palestinians calling for the document to be implemented as published, and the Israelis wanting to see a number of changes made. "I haven't heard any Israeli official saying a simple sentence, that we accept the road map," Erakat said. "We are really very concerned with Israel's positions vis-a-vis the road map." A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the road map is a "working document... not a take it or leave it document." Ra'anan Gissin, Sharon's spokesman, said: "It will be laid on the table so all parties can make their concerns known." The Bush administration has said that it will give "serious consideration" to comments from both sides regarding the "road map." Powell is planning to visit the region and meet with Israelis and Palestinians sometime after Abu Mazen's Cabinet is confirmed but no exact dates have been set yet, according to U.S. officials. It would be his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since last April.
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