Mediators Tell Palestinians to Reform or Lose Aid

Middle East mediators threaten funding and support of the Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority unless true reforms are implemented, according to Reuters.

Sapped by years of corruption and disorder as well as Israeli raids, Arafat's Palestinian Authority needs foreign help to fill a power vacuum when Israel quits the Gaza Strip next year or if it hopes to revive peace talks with the Jewish state.

But envoys from the United States, United Nations and European Union and Russia told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie that the world had run out of patience with Arafat's "empty promises" of reform.

"If security reforms are not done, there will be no (more) international support and no funding from the international community," a senior diplomat close to the talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah told Reuters.

Arafat's removal from the Palestinian Authority would, ideally, be the best reform possible and the best step towards peace. I guess we'll have to wait and see if these are just empty threats, as I see no reform of any consequence occurring under Arafat.