Ramallah

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday promised active US involvement in Middle East peacemaking, saying Washington will dispatch a high-level ”security coordinator” to the region and send more than -million in immediate aid to the Palestinians.

Mahmoud Abbas’s first hours in office were marked by a series of crises — from the resignation of 46 election officials who accused the ruling Fatah party of pressure to renewed violence that could threaten his leadership. Abbas was sworn in on Saturday as the new Palestinian leader while violence raged in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that he is ready to honour the security commitments in an internationally backed peace plan, adding that he hopes to resume peace talks with Israel soon. Abbas, elected earlier this week, said he is eager to restart talks on the ”road map” peace plan, backed by the United States, European Union and the Russian Federation.

Yasser Arafat, who triumphantly forced his people’s plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong quest for Palestinian statehood, died on Thursday at age 75. He was to the end a man of many mysteries and paradoxes — terrorist, statesman, autocrat and peacemaker.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan early on Thursday was ”deeply moved” by the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who ”symbolised … the national aspirations of the Palestinian people”, Annan’s spokesperson said in a statement. The passing away of Arafat, Annan said, must intensify the search for peace in the Middle East. Palestinians reacted with tears and tributes to news of Arafat’s death.

Palestinians are well-prepared for the death of Yasser Arafat. Through television reports of foreigners paying homage at Arafat’s battered compound and prison, Palestinians have watched their 75-year-old leader degenerate into a feeble, shaking and often incoherent shadow over the past two years.

Yasser Arafat flew to Paris on Friday morning for emergency medical treatment, leaving for the first time in more than two years the battered Ramallah compound in which Israel has confined him. Doctors from four Arab countries were on Thursday unable to pinpoint what had caused the serious deterioration in the health of the 75-year-old Palestinian leader, amid growing speculation he is suffering from leukaemia.

Yasser Arafat’s medics flatly denied on Tuesday that the 75-year-old Palestinian leader needs hospital treatment after Israel gave clearance for him to be treated outside his West Bank headquarters. Israel’s Defence Ministry said late on Monday that Arafat will be allowed to leave his headquarters to be examined in a Ramallah hospital.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an attempt to defuse an unprecedented challenge to his authority was holding more talks with his Prime Minister, Ahmed Qorei, on Tuesday in a bid to persuade him to retract his resignation. Street protests in Gaza forced Arafat to execute an embarrassing U-turn over his choice of security supremo.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei confirmed on Saturday that he had tendered his resignation to veteran leader Yasser Arafat, an offer that Cabinet ministers said was rejected. Qorei submitted his resignation in a morning meeting at Arafat’s Muqataa headquarters after a spate of kidnappings in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said on Monday that he is willing to hold talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, but only if such a summit ”would lead to results”. Sharon and Qorei have still not met since the Palestinian premier came to power last October.

The Palestinian Authority on Friday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s thinly veiled assassination threat against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as an ”unprecedented escalation”. ”This is a serious threat, which is aimed at scuppering the peace process,” said Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against Israel’s West Bank barrier on Thursday, and two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier at a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops. The West Bank protesters were trying to block construction workers from putting up a new section of fencing.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, branded an absolute obstacle to peace by Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, is trying to exploit Monday’s launch of an unofficial peace plan to portray his arch-enemy as the real hurdle to a resolution of the Middle East conflict, according to observers.

The Palestinian legislature on Wednesday approved the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, ending a two-month stalemate that has stymied talks on ending the fighting with Israel. The vote appeared to open the way for a resumption of peace talks with Israel.

Ahmed Qorei chaired a meeting of his emergency Cabinet in Ramallah on Monday for the first time after reluctantly agreeing to stay on as Palestinian premier until the end of the month, amid international concern over the divisions within the leadership.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has handed in his resignation just two days after being sworn in by Yasser Arafat and as another suicide bomber blew himself up in the West Bank, wounding three people. It was not immediately clear if Arafat has accepted the resignation.

Yasser Arafat’s appointment of an emergency Cabinet is designed to give the Palestinian leadership room to manoeuvre a crackdown on armed factions and stave off threats of his expulsion, observers said on Monday. A source close to the new Cabinet said a decision had already been made to move against the hardliners.

The Palestinian leadership has accused Israel of sabotaging peace efforts and threatening regional stability with its decisions to build fences deep inside the West Bank and new homes in the settlements. The Israeli Cabinet on Wednesday okayed the extension of its barrier to seal off the West Bank.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shrugged off on Wednesday the vetoing by the United States of a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli plans to remove him from his West Bank headquarters. ”The US veto is a black day for the UN and for the Arabs,” Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat said.

Yasser Arafat nominated the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, Ahmed Qureia, last night to be prime minister and oversee a crumbling peace process further jeopardised by pledges by Ariel Sharon and Hamas to destroy each other.

United States and British officials are battling to save Mahmoud Abbas, the man they helped install as Palestinian prime minister, in a power struggle with Yasser Arafat that could bury what remains of the battered US-led ”road map” to peace.

More than 300 Palestinian men walked free from Israeli military prisons this week to be snubbed by their own leaders but hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as evidence of Israel’s commitment to peace.

Hamas leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi threatened on Tuesday ”not to leave one Jew in Palestine” in remarks to Al-Jazeera television from his Gaza hospital bed as he recovered from an Israeli bid to kill him.