Arafat approves Abbas as deputy

LONDON — Yasser Arafat approved plans by senior officials in his Palestinian Authority to name former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to a newly created post of “deputy chairman” prior to Mr. Arafat’s departure for a Paris hospital early today.

Senior Palestinian officials cautioned that such a change could take weeks or even months to orchestrate, and probably would wait until after Mr. Arafat completed treatment for a serious blood disorder.

Moreover, they said that the current prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, could continue to run day-to-day affairs of the Palestinian Authority during Mr. Arafat’s absence.

Nevertheless, the move marks the first indication of who will succeed Mr. Arafat as the Palestinian leader.

“This latest illness has at last got [Mr. Arafat] to understand he needs to have a deputy,” said one Palestinian Cabinet minister who declined to be named.

“He told us … ’you guys have to be responsible and deal with matters’ in his absence,” the minister added.

Following a series of emergency meetings in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the minister also said: “[Mr. Abbas] has had a reconciliation with [Mr. Arafat]. He is the man most of the important people here want.”

A second official, an aide to a key Palestinian minister who was present when the plan was discussed with Mr. Arafat, said it definitely would happen.

Mr. Arafat, unable to stand on his own, agreed to leave the West Bank compound in Ramallah, where he has been under virtual house arrest for more than two years, and fly to a Paris hospital for treatment.

Blood tests showed that Mr. Arafat, 75, suffered from a low platelet count, though it was unclear what caused the ailment. His doctors ruled out leukemia.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier welcomed the decision by Mr. Arafat to come.

“France … will be always on your side to back your effort in favor of a just and negotiated peace,” Mr. Barnier said.

It was not clear whether Mr. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, would accompany Mr. Arafat to Paris. The two frequently had disagreed, and last year, Mr. Arafat effectively fired Mr. Abbas as prime minister.

Despite many months of total estrangement, Mr. Arafat held two one-on-one meetings with Mr. Abbas in the past several days.

Mr. Abbas’ return to favor came about after senior Cabinet ministers urged the two men to bury their differences for the sake of avoiding a chaotic and potentially explosive succession battle.

A consensus was reached among “some powerful men in the Cabinet, who were pushing for this,” the second official said.

The majority of the Cabinet wanted to prevent either Jibril Rajoub, the current national security adviser, or his rival and predecessor, Mohamed Dahlan, from entering the fray.

The central committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian political movement, is to be convened to approve the move, followed by a rubber-stamping of the decision by the much larger PLO executive committee, this official said.

However, the plan could be stillborn if Mr. Arafat falls victim to the illness, leaving insufficient time for the gatherings necessary to amend the current laws. As things now stand, there is no provision for a deputy chairman.

“Mr. Abbas has managed to swing the support of most factions in the PLO,” the official said.

Mr. Arafat, who holds the official post of chairman of the Palestinian Authority despite his preference for the title “president,” has declined to name an acting leader while the moves toward creating a deputy chairmanship are taking place.

Mr. Abbas would hold the post until national elections could take place, giving him time to consolidate support among Palestinian masses, if the scenario works as planned.

Mr. Abbas had been arguing for a “demilitarization” of the four-year-old uprising against Israel ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Mr. Abbas is one of the few surviving founding members of Fatah — the main political grouping within the PLO.

In exile in Qatar during the late 1950s, he helped recruit a group of Palestinians to the cause. They went on to become key figures in the PLO.

He co-founded Fatah with Mr. Arafat and accompanied him into exile in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia. In the early days of the movement, he became respected for his clean and simple living.