Arafat Lashes Out at U.S. over Jerusalem Law
``This decision is a catastrophe that Muslims and Christians should not let pass in silence,'' Arafat said about the law that took effect on Monday and requires the U.S. government to list Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in official documents.

``I am asking the American administration and the American president to stop this,'' Arafat said in his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, scene of a 10-day Israeli siege that ended on Sunday under pressure from the United States.

The new legislation drew sharp condemnation from the Arab League and key U.S. ally Saudi Arabia at a time when Washington faces an uphill struggle to convince Arab states to back possible U.S. military action against Iraq.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally.

Arafat on Tuesday won the backing of his influential Fatah faction for a three-week delay in appointing an interim cabinet and support for his opposition to the idea of naming a prime minister to assume some of his powers.

Arafat, whose 21-member cabinet quit in September to avoid a showdown with lawmakers when it appeared he would lose a vote of confidence in the reform-minded Palestinian Legislative Council, was to have appointed new ministers by the end of last month.

Arafat, who has denied Israeli accusations he has helped orchestrate anti-Israeli violence in the two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence, has scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections for January 20.

Fatah officials said the faction, which traditionally backs Arafat, was against an immediate appointment of a prime minister because it would play into Israeli attempts to weaken him.

``This idea has been canceled from our dictionary. This is not the right time,'' Fatah member Sakher Habash told Reuters.

Palestinian fury over the U.S. law identifying Jerusalem as Israel's capital was mirrored across the Arab world, which accuses Washington of pro-Israel bias and of giving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a free hand to hit Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

``This leads to destroying the efforts made to return the Arab-Israeli conflict to the proper political track and maintains the occupation, the resistance, the tension and the violence,'' Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said.

Saudi Arabia voiced concern it would embolden Israel to toughen its policies against Palestinians.

While the Arab world seethed, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel must not hamper a U.S. drive against Iraq. ``We must give priority to the United States to carry out its policy,'' he told Israel Radio.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html