Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Monday that he is actively pursuing new politicians within his Fatah party to take over his post.
"I am pushing them, and I am proud that our movement, our party Fatah, has a very big amount of people and members, and we are very proud of them," he said in an interview with the CNN.
The Palestinian Authority has set election date for January 20, 2003, which has been put off indefinitely.
The Palestinian leader blamed Israel for the postponement of elections, saying its forces "have to withdraw" from the Palestinian territories. "How this can be accepted internationally?" he said. "We were ready, and everything had been declared, and we had informed the 'quartet', we had informed all the Arab countries, we had informed the United Nations, we had even ... asked from many of these countries to send, as they had done in the previous elections, observers."
Israel has imposed travel restrictions and curfews in Palestinian cities and towns, saying these steps are necessary to prevent bombing attacks. Arafat dismissed that argument.
"Oh, suicide bombers? Does this, the suicide bombers in America ... delay your democracy also and your election in America?" he said. "You know that we are against it. Everyone knows that we are against it, and we had declared that, and we take many steps, and recently we had arrested some of them."
Arafat said he would like to hold an election as soon as possible, saying all that was needed was at least one month for preparation and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Arafat said that "the most important thing we need is to live in peace, together side by side, with the Israelis."
"This is terra santa, the holy land. The peace here is very important, not only for the Palestinians but for the whole world."
When asked about the possibility of a U.S.-led military strike on Iraq, Arafat said he agreed with European countries that the United Nations must play a lead role.
"They have to work hard through the U.N. to arrive to a peace agreement, and I'm sure that President Bush will follow up this line. I am sure of that," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
