Comparing himself to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said in an interview published Tuesday that he will step down from office after he has ruled an independent Palestinian state. Arafat, in an interview with the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, compared himself to Mandela, 86, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and stepped down five years later to assume the role of an elder statesman. Mandela shared a Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk in 1993, a year before Arafat shared the same prize with late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. "I am ready to be Nelson Mandela," Arafat said in an apparent reference to Mandela's withdrawal from political office. "I agree, but (only) after the Palestinian state is established and I am its president. Then I leave it to others."
| That'll be several days after you're dead, Yasser... |
No date has been set for the legislative and presidential elections Arafat announced last month, but he said he would respect the decisions of Palestinian leaders. "What the Palestinian leadership decides, I commit to," he said.
| "Then I'll ignore it, just like I always do..." |
"In the end, I won't impose myself." However, Arafat has repeatedly sidelined any potential challengers to his authority and consolidated his power base. Few believe he would step aside in the elections. The interview was conducted last week on the fourth anniversary of the Palestinian uprising. Thursday was also the day Israel launched an open-ended offensive in the Gaza Strip, which the army says is aimed at stopping Palestinian militants from firing rockets at Israeli towns close to the Strip. |