Arafat Names Abu Mazen as New PNA Prime Minister

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 09, 2003

Arafat Names Abu Mazen as New PNA Prime Minister

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat named on Saturday Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, as the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in front of a meeting of the Palestinian Central which convened in Ramallah.

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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday named Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, to the post of prime minister at a highest decision-making session in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Arafat brought the key issue of reforms for approval at the opening session of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

He appealed to the PCC members to vote for his proposal, saying "our choice is democratic. To hold elections and divide the authorities into three major functions are part of this democracy."

"Nominating a prime minister is part of the reforms in all aspects," he stressed.

Arafat said the Executive Committee of the PLO had accepted the nomination of Abu Mazen as premier. "We just need your acceptance," he told the PCC members.

Abu Mazen, secretary general of the PLO, is widely acknowledged as the organization's deputy chief, next only to Arafat.

On the need for peace with Israel, Arafat said it is a "strategic" option.

"Peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis is our strategic choice," Arafat said.

"We are not intending to change it, because it is our national goal that we would struggle for it," he added.

He said this choice would enable the Palestinian people to get rid of the military occupation and establish their independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

"We are committed to reach this goal through negotiations and by using peaceful means. We are seeking to achieve a just and comprehensive peace that would lead to establishing a Palestinian state beside the state of Israel," he said.

Peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would benefit the whole region, and "must be based on the Saudi Arabia initiative that was presented before the Arab Summit held in Lebanon in 2002," said the Palestinian leader.

Arafat called on all Palestinian political and Islamic groups to activate a unified leadership of the Palestinian intifada (uprising), which he said was active during the first intifada from 1987 to 1993.

He urged leaders of different Palestinian groups to be reunited, work together and forge a new national policy that "would reinforce the Palestinian unity."

"The aim of reinforcing the Palestinian unity is to end the Israeli military occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state," said Arafat.

The PCC, which used to be the mini-Palestinian parliament in exile, consists of 128 members, of whom Israel allowed most to attend the meeting in Ramallah.

PCC Speaker Salim Za'noon said the meeting will also discuss the newly written Palestinian State constitution and other key issues.

The PLO has to be activated as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territories and in exile, he said.

He renewed call for all support to the ruling Palestinian National Authority chaired by Arafat.

"We should be aware of not giving Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the excuse to implement his colonization plans," said Za'noon.

He echoed the appeal by Arafat for continued inter-Palestinian dialogue to serve the highest national interests.

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