JERUSALEM, Nov 10 (AFP) - Israel can no longer say it has no viable Palestinian partner for peace talks with the departure of veteran leader Yasser Arafat from the scene, opposition Labour leader Shimon Peres said Wednesday.
"We are already in the post-Arafat era. A responsible Palestinian leadership is now in the process of being put in place, and one can no longer say that we don't have a partner" for peace negotiations, Peres told reporters.
Peres called on the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to make "goodwill gestures" toward the new Palestinian leadership.
Palestinian officials confirmed Wednesday that parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh would become caretaker president of the Palestinian Authority in the event of Arafat's death.
But former prime minister and acting Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Mahmud Abbas, a White House favorite, is seen as the frontrunner to succeed Arafat as overall Palestinian leader.
Arafat was on Wednesday clinging to life in a French military hospital outside Paris, where he was airlifted for emergency medical treatment on October 29.
Peres also said Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip should be "coordinated with the Palestinians", especially given the circumstances.
"Although Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan is unilateral, it's impossible in practice to carry it out without a minimum of coordination" with the Palestinian Authority, the former Israeli premier said.
Sharon's plan will see all 8,000 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and several hundred residents of four small Jewish enclaves in the northern West Bank evacuated by September 2005.
11/10/2004 15:47 GMT - AFP