PLO approves Arafat's choice of Abu Ala as new PM

The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation
Organization on Sunday evening approved
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's
choice of senior official Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala)
as his next prime minister, cabinet minister
Yasser Abed Rabbo said.

*****

In response to the prime minister's resignation,
U.S. leaders - including U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell and White House national
security adviser Condoleezza Rice - on Sunday
blamed Arafat for hindering progress towards
Middle East peace and said he must relinquish
control of security forces.

*****

PA Minister for Security Affairs Mohammed Dahlan
said Sunday that he would not serve in any new
cabinet unless it was headed by Abbas, and
decried the latest calls by Israeli officials
to expel Arafat from the Palestinian
territories.

*****

Aides to Dahlan said the tussle with Arafat had
embittered him because he and Abbas were
painted by Arafat loyalists as U.S.
collaborators and stooges of Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/337263.html

Killing Jews for fun is getting really old. Good luck to Abu in his hopeful efforts to destroy hamas.

and will begin to dismantle settlements and checkpoints and try to make life easier for the Palestinians.

But this subject is not about Sharon.

it's not about, "Killing Jews for fun..." either.

"Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council & PLC member for Jerusalem. b.1937 in Abu Dis, from a wealthy family. Joined Fatah in 1968. Had been director of PLO’s foreign investment arm, director-general of PLO’s economic department & member of financial subcommittee; elected to Fatah-CC in Aug89. Had a key role in negotiating Oslo accords as chief of delegation, & headed negotiations which led to the Apr94 Paris agreement & Sept95 Oslo II agreement. Is chief negotiator in the final status talks. Minister of Economy & Trade, then Minister for Industry, in the first PA cabinets, before the PLC elections (1994-6); prepared the PLO’s development strategy for the OTs in “Programme for Development of the Palestinian national economy, 1994-2000”, & became Managing-Director of PECDAR since its creation in 1993. Obtained the highest no of votes in Jerusalem in the PNC elections. Has good relations with West Bank NGOs, & is generally seen as “pro-democracy”; won 60/73 votes in PLC re-election for Speaker in Mar00. Also owns a company that produce cement for settlement-building, including Jabal Abu Ghunaym (Har Homa)."

From: http://middleeastreference.org.uk/palbiograph.html#AhmadQurai