Arafat swears in new president

YASSER ARAFAT swore in new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and a skeleton emergency cabinet yesterday in a move likely to make it more difficult for Israel to carry out its threat to “remove” the Palestinian leader.

But not sworn in was the man tipped to take some control over all the Palestinian security forces, Nasser Yousef.

Israel and the US have demanded centralisation of the eight Palestinian security branches under the interior minister the post responsible for law and order so they can crack down on militant groups. Arafat has traditionally maintained tight control over many of those forces.