Rajoub says Bush is a 'danger'

The major security challenge facing the West Bank and Gaza Strip is Israel's occupation, said Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's national security adviser.

Closures and curfews and the inability of the Palestinian National Authority to impose law and order on the ground were also a major problem, Rajoub told Gulf News on Sunday while on a brief visit to the UAE.

"In the absence of police security there's no way the judiciary can work."

Rajoub, a controversial figure in Palestine, who oversaw West Bank security after the Oslo Peace Accords, had been previously accused by local human rights groups of allowing torture during interrogation.

The security chief said: "I wish I had never worked in the military sector. I should have worked in politics more because it has fewer headaches."

His recently published book Jibril Rajoub, Straightforward will soon be available in Dubai.

He said for the intifada to continue, four major factors have to be averted.

"The intifada should not have been militarised. We are no military competition for Israel. There shouldn't be military operations inside the Green Line (Israel). Whether we like it or not, we have recognised Israel.

"There shouldn't be firing from Areas A (under full Palestinian Authority control). There shouldn't be firing from Areas A to other areas. Israel has exploited that to enter areas run by the authority.

"We must have a security plan. There must be a political security plan that's possible to implement, that complements the Arab initiative and international law."

Rajoub said efforts to put the Palestinian house in order through talks in Cairo "was close to an agreement," but were halted when Israel started assassinating senior Hamas leaders in Gaza.

Rajoub refrained from naming possible successors to the ailing Palestinian president, and said that Fatah, the PLO and Palestinian National Authority "would be the inheritor."

"There must be a political security plan that's possible to implement, that complements the Arab initiative and international law."