CAIRO, July 21 (AFP) - Egypt said on Wednesday that Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei should have a role in supervising Palestinian security organs which also needed to be unified.
"We have called for unifying the Palestinian security organs and for the prime minister to be given authority over those organs that is parallel to that of the president (Yasser Arafat) of the Palestinian National Authority," Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdul Fatah told reporters.
"Egypt does not aim to isolate anybody or give anybody more authority than the other," he said but stressed it was necessary to empower the prime minister and enable him to supervise the various security organizations.
"We want to see that the Palestinian prime minister has a role in supervising the security organs," Fatah said, adding however that finally that was something for the Palestinians themselves to decide.
Qorei submitted his resignation on Saturday after an unprecedented state of kidnappings and a breakdown in law and order in the impoverished Gaza Strip. He has since refused to retract it although Arafat refused to accept it.
The prime minister has been fighting for greater control of the security services since coming to power last autumn but Arafat has been determined not to release his grip.
Fatah said Cairo was in contact with both Qorei and Arafat in an effort to "contain the crisis" and find a solution that would be satisfactory to the Palestinian people.
The issue was not one of confidence in the Palestinian leader, according to Fatah. "There is confidence in President Yasser Arafat because he is the elected Palestinian leader," he said.
"There cannot be a solution to the Palestinian issue without President Arafat," Fatah continued, saying that Arafat alone was capable selling any peace deal with Israel to the Palestinians.