Recently released documents from the British government archive show that in 2001 the then US President George W Bush instructed the CIA to search for a possible successor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the escalation of the Second (“Aqsa”) Intifada, the BBC has reported.
According to the documents, the instructions came after the failure of the 2000 Camp David negotiations between Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Moreover, they show that Bush expected that Ariel Sharon, who succeeded Barak as prime minister, would use the Gaza Strip in order to sow division among the Palestinians.
The documents deal with the discussions and contacts between Britain and the United States a few months after Bush entered the White House in January 2001. His administration was dominated by neoconservatives.
The Second Intifada broke out after Sharon stormed into Al-Aqsa Mosque escorted by hundreds of security personnel at the end of September 2000. By early in the following year it was at its height.
The Bush administration called on Arafat to stop the intifada as a prelude to starting security negotiations with Israel. The US president vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council which proposed sending a UN observer force to protect Palestinian civilians from Israeli forces in the occupied territories.
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