MIDDLE EAST: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, phoned Mr Yasser Arafat yesterday. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has called too. The Palestinian Authority president slammed down the phone on the EU envoy, Mr Miguel Moratinos.
The incessant phone calls from these and several other Arab, European and American leaders have carried a blunt warning: if Mr Arafat does not drop the objections which are preventing Mr Mahmoud Abbas from becoming the first PA prime minister, he risks badly damaging the prospects for Palestinian statehood.
Yet, as of last night, Mr Arafat was still disputing the cabinet team proposed by Mr Abbas, the man he himself had nominated as prime minister. Mr Abbas, for his part, was saying that the negotiations with Mr Arafat had failed and that there would be no more.
PA regulations provide for the cabinet to be finalised no later than today. If no 11th-hour compromise is found, Mr Abbas will today resign from the position he never actually took and Mr Arafat will look elsewhere.
Mr Arafat has been unwilling to approve Mr Abbas's choice of ministers for two principal reasons: he does not wish to have his hitherto absolute control of the PA diluted and he does not want to countenance the security crackdown Mr Abbas has in mind against Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Arafat-loyalist al-Aksa Brigades, all of which have proudly carried out suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians.
The dispute over the ministerial team has focused principally on Mr Abbas's choice to oversee the crackdown, the proposed Interior Minister, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, a former head of security in Gaza and a charismatic potential heir to Mr Arafat.
Although it was pressure from legislators in his own Fatah political faction which forced Mr Arafat to approve the creation of the post of prime minister two months ago, many of those legislators have been backing Mr Arafat in the current crisis. The PA President has been further bolstered by the fact that his popularity among ordinary Palestinians is unchallenged, while Mr Abbas has little personal support.
"I am the elected leader of the Palestinians," he is said to have reminded several of the foreign callers, adding that Mr Abbas was his choice for prime minister and that he could easily find another.
What some of those callers said in response, however, was that unless Mr Abbas and his ministers were confirmed in office, any new PA cabinet would be perceived as an unreformed continuation of Mr Arafat's absolute rule, stalling any chance of a return to the negotiating table with Israel.
President Bush has said he will formally present the "road map" to Palestinian statehood as soon as Mr Abbas takes office. He has not said what he will do if that day never comes.