A Palestinian Cabinet minister resigned Friday amid growing calls for reform following Israel's military offensive, which left Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority in tatters.
Nabil Amr, minister of parliamentary affairs, submitted his resignation but said he would retain his seat in the Palestinian parliament.
In Friday's Cabinet meeting, the first since Israel launched its offensive March 29, Amr and other ministers spoke about the need for restructuring the government, though they were not specific in their criticism.
Addressing repeated U.S. demands that Palestinians do more to prevent terror attacks on Israelis, the Cabinet said that it "rejects and condemns all operations against civilians, whether Palestinians or Israelis" and that it condemns "all forms of terror, whether terror coming from individuals, groups or state terror."
At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer took an indirect slap at the way the Palestinian Authority has been functioning.
He said President Bush wants to make certain the Palestinian people "have a government that is worthy of them, and is not in any way inhibited in its ability to serve the people as a result of lack of transparency or lack of rule of law or the presence of corruption."
Fleischer implied that the Palestinian Authority suffers from all of these shortcomings. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
