World News 08-09-2003 Road Map To Peace Suspended who: Yasser Arafat what: Nominates next prime minister following resignation of Mahmoud Abbas where: West Bank when: Yesterday snippet: "The Middle East road map to peace hit a stop sign yesterday," reckons The Mirror`s Steven White. On a weekend when Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, announced his resignation, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned leaders of Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas they were "marked for death" and Israel "tried to kill 10 Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, with a 550lb bomb in a raid by an F-15 warplane on Gaza City." "It failed," White goes on, "and caused only minor injuries to Yassin. Children playing near the targeted house suffered shrapnel wounds." "Mr Arafat, meanwhile, held urgent talks with leaders of his Fatah movement," says The Scotsman, "trying to come up with a replacement [for Mr Abbas] that would salvage relations with Washington, the driving force behind the original appointment of Mr Abbas." The road map will be suspended until Israel and the US have an elected negotiating partner. Mr Arafat has nominated the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Qureia, says The Guardian`s Chris McGreal. But, he writes, many Palestinian politicians "question whether he will be any better able to succeed than Mr Abbas without greater US pressure on Israel to curtail attacks in the occupied territories and bolster Palestinian support for the road map by easing the hardships of occupation". [... more]

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