US Suggests Figurehead Role for Arafat

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, July 17, 2002

US Suggests Figurehead Role for Arafat

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday night that Washington would like to consider a plan to give Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a figurehead role in a new Palestinian leadership.

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday night that Washington would like to consider a plan to give Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a figurehead role in a new Palestinian leadership.

"It is a formula I'd be more than willing to consider," Powell said in an interview with ABC's "Nightline" program, responding toa question that the US is seeking to move Arafat into a figureheadpresidency.

Reiterating President George W. Bush's call for a new Palestinian leadership, the secretary insisted that Arafat has no place in future Middle East peace negotiations.

But he also acknowledged that "it's up to the Palestinian people to ultimately decide what role Chairman Arafat should play in the end."

According to an exclusive report published by Newsweek magazineon Monday, Powell was encouraging the drafting of a plan that would give the Palestinians a state while moving Arafat into a figurehead presidency with limited powers.

US officials told the magazine that the plan would work like this: under a new draft constitution, a Palestinian parliament would be elected and it would appoint a prime minister, whose namecould then be forwarded to the president, Arafat, for formal approval.

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