Arafat and Abbas reach compromise over new cabinet

Yasser Arafat and the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, reached a last-minute deal to end a bitter standoff over the Palestinian cabinet yesterday, clearing the way for the release of the long-delayed "road-map" peace plan.

The US, Britain and European Union all welcomed the agreement, which came after Mr Arafat backed down over his opposition to the cabinet proposed by Mr Abbas. Western diplomats said the road-map could be released within days.

Mr Abbas had threatened to resign if Mr Arafat continued to hold out against his choice of ministers. Yesterday Mr Arafat was believed to have agreed to a cabinet close to the one Mr Abbas originally proposed.

Mohammed Dahlan, proposed by Mr Abbas as Interior Minister, caused the most wrangling. Under the deal agreed yesterday, Mr Abbas will himself take the Interior Ministry portfolio while Mr Dahlan will now be State Minister for Internal Security – a purely cosmetic difference and the same compromise that Mr Arafat rejected out of hand a few days ago.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Tony Blair put great emphasis on the road-map, which calls for a Palestinian state within three years, and on President George Bush's promise to release it once Mr Abbas took power.

But the row between Mr Arafat and Mr Abbas had threatened to wreck the whole enterprise. With yesterday's agreement, the last obstacles to the road-map's publication are being cleared. All that now remains is for Mr Abbas' cabinet to be approved by the Palestinian parliament, in a vote which should take place within the next week.

To watch Mr Arafat smiling yesterday, arm in arm with both Omar Suleiman – Egypt's intelligence chief who was dispatched by President Hosni Mubarak to Ramallah to change Mr Arafat's mind – and Mr Abbas you would believe he had succeeded in wringing a compromise out of Mr Abbas. But the deal appeared to be the other way round.

Bullied into appointing Mr Abbas as Prime Minister because the US and Israel were refusing to speak with him, Mr Arafat balked at the cabinet Mr Abbas proposed, in which his loyalists were demoted, and his enemies given the most senior posts.

Amid the speculation over what changed Mr Arafat's mind yesterday were unconfirmed rumours the Israelis may have finally agreed to let him out of his Muqata office complex in Ramallah, where he has been holed up for months under an Israeli travel ban. There were also rumours his personal safety may have been guaranteed.

Problems still remain. The Palestinian parliament still has to approve the cabinet – and the deal Mr Arafat made yesterday does nothing to tackle serious opposition to Mr Abbas' cabinet there. Members of Mr Arafat's Fatah party fear Mr Abbas and Mr Dahlan mean to take on the militant groups including Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades – exactly what the US and Israel want them to do – thus sparking a "civil war".

But Muawiya al-Masri, an independent member of the Palestinian parliament said: "We have a new cabinet to implement the road-map, but not to serve the interests of the Palestinian people. Arafat is fighting his last battle. Arafat is losing his powers. This is the beginning of his end."