WASHINGTON, July 20 (AFP) - Recent clashes among Palestinians on the Gaza Strip appear to be the result of a personality clash rather than a fundamental shift toward reform, a senior US diplomat told Congress Tuesday.
"I wish I could tell you ... that the events of the past three days represent a genuine movement toward reform, toward structural changes, toward leadership transformation," David Satterfield, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"But while those events are still in some fashion going on, I think our judgment is this represents more of an internal clash between personalities than it does a fundamental shift on the critical structural and leadership issues which we, the quartet and Egypt have all insisted upon," he stressed.
"We would hope that the opportunity continues to present itself, the opportunity will be taken to make those changes. But I think it would be over-reading the situation as we understand it today ... to see in Gaza's events that particular positive phenomenon unfolding."
The Gaza protests, which at one stage erupted into armed clashes between the security forces and militants traditionally loyal to Yasser Arafat, were sparked by the appointment of Arafat's unpopular cousin Musa as head of the general security service.
Arafat subsequently demoted Musa on Monday by naming Abdel Razzeq al-Majeida as overall security supremo, with his cousin's responsibility limited to Gaza.
While calm has returned to the streets of Gaza, the political and security crisis presented Arafat with his biggest challenge since he returned to the territories from exile some 10 years ago.
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei reached an uneasy truce with Arafat Tuesday, refusing to retract his resignation but agreeing to stay in his post for the moment.