The Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, has once again found himself in a difficult political position following the inability of the US peace co-ordinator, Mr Dennis Ross, to secure from Israel a firm figure for "substantive" and "credible" redeployment from the West Bank.
Mr Ross, who has had an eventful but not positive visit to Israel, has also been frustrated in his attempts to persuade Jerusalem to take "time out" - in the words of the Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright - from settlement activity. With no progress to show on the peace front, Mr Arafat has been compelled to consider democratic concessions on the domestic front to the Legislative Council and to his own Fateh movement. After months of procrastination and prevarication, the Palestinian President has pledged to reshuffle his inefficient and corrupt Cabinet and table the Authority's 1998 budget by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Mr Arafat has begun to sign legislation passed by the Council which has remained pending - some Bills for 18 months. He is expected to postpone as long as possible, however, the most important of these measures, the "Basic Law" or constitution of the Palestine Authority, which includes a bill of rights to protect the populace against his dozen security agencies. At the end of the year the Council suspended its meetings until Mr Arafat promised to take action and threatened a vote of no confidence. Responding to a recent poll which showed that 63 per cent of Palestinians consider their administration to be corrupt, Mr Arafat's Fateh movement has been campaigning for reform and early municipal elections.
Reuters adds from Jerusalem:
Mr Ross, shuttling between the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem and Mr Arafat in Bethlehem, was to hold separate talks with each last night.
"Dennis Ross is doing his best to prepare the ground for the meetings with the President, but the ground is collapsing out from under him," Israel's army radio commented yesterday. President Clinton is to meet Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat separately later this month.