In August 2009, Fayad relayed a request to the United States to recall
Dayton, said to have intervened in Palestinian internal affairs. The prime
minister was said to have been angered by statements made by Dayton that
were deemed as having belittled the PA as well as bypassing the Palestinian
security chain of command.
But the White House rejected Fayad's request to replace Dayton, said to
have a direct line to senior officials in the White House and State
Department. At the same time, senior U.S. officials urged PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas and Fayad to reconcile with Dayton.
In September, the White House also quelled a PA campaign to attack
Dayton in the U.S. media. In one development, officials said, Dayton's
superiors at the White House and State Department pressed Time Magazine to
cancel publication of a report on Dayton and friction with the PA. A Time
source confirmed that "high-level political pressure" led to the
cancellation of the report.
Officials said Dayton has sought to accelerate PA security training and
weapons procurement to expand deployment throughout the West Bank. They said
Dayton plans to send another three battalions of the National Security Force
to Jordan for a four-month training course over the next year. The PA has
deemed the Jordanian training program ineffective and wasteful.
So far, NSF has been the only PA security agency to cooperate with the
U.S. training program in Jordan. Dayton, however, has succeeded in
persuading other agencies to send senior officers to a commander's course in
Ramallah.
Another U.S. proposal was for the establishment of training centers for
international peace-keepers in the West Bank. Under the plan, Dayton would
help set up three centers, one of them in Israel and the rest in areas under
PA rule.