Regional leaders reject Bush's Middle East plan

MIDDLE EAST: Key elements of the Bush administration's Middle East policy have been rejected by three important regional players. Mr Muhammad Dahlan, a man considered to be one of Washington's candidates to succeed the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, said the US call for his ouster has boomeranged.

Mr Dahlan said nine out of 10 Palestinians would vote for Mr Arafat in the election scheduled for January 2003. Mr Dahlan, who resigned last month as Gaza's head of preventive security, stated: "As long as the Israelis are against Arafat, I'm with him, whatever reservations I have about some of the decisions that have been made."

Mr Dahlan also seems to have halted preparations being made by himself and others for Mr Arafat's replacement. "While the chairman is under siege, it would be wrong to criticise him - that would only serve Israel and America. There is no changing the leadership in these circumstances. If they try to expel or kill \ - and anything is possible in the era of [President] Bush and [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon - they will come to regret it bitterly. Bush is now effectively demanding a coup against Arafat. The American administration says even if he is re-elected in new elections, it will not deal with him."

The second person to speak out was Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the effective ruler of the kingdom. He said his country "rejects any intervention by any side in Arab internal affairs, and . . . in the affairs of the Palestinian people, who alone have the right to choose their leadership".

Finally, the Syrian President, Dr Bashar al-Assad, turned down Mr Bush's call for Damascus to cut ties with Lebanon's Hizbullah and to expel Palestinian resistance groups based in the Syrian capital. In an interview published in the Lebanese daily, al-Liwa, Dr Assad stated: "Syria supports the Lebanese national resistance, including Hizbullah . . . in resisting occupation and liberating land."

But he said Syria's backing would be only political and "in the media" because the Lebanese "do not need military support from Syria". He reiterated his stand that the 10 Palestinian opposition groups with offices in Damascus "provide political representation to the 400,000 Palestinians living in Syria" and "help them to attain their rights". Amongst these groups are Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front which have carried out attacks against Israelis.

Dr Assad also rebuffed warnings that Israel would respond to Hizbullah operations against its troops by hitting Syrian military installations in Lebanon or in Syria itself.