RAMALLAH -- When a leading reformer and outspoken critic of suicide bombings left Yasser Arafat's government this fall, he told the Palestinian leader he was fed up with the corruption and militancy of security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh said that during his term as Palestinian interior minister, he was prevented from demilitarizing the police forces and overruled when he tried to remove several commanders who had participated in attacks on Israelis.

He said he found the task of reforming the police impossible. "The ones I did succeed in moving are now back in their jobs."

Although also deeply critical of Israeli policy, Mr. Yehiyeh's complaints, which he is making public for the first time, confirm some of Israel's criticisms of Mr. Arafat: That while he may mouth a commitment to reform and an end to military confrontation with Israel, he often opposes it in practice.

Mr. Yehiyeh, who left cabinet last month, was appointed interior minister in June, at a time when Mr. Arafat was under intense international pressure to demonstrate his willingness to reform.

Mr. Yehiyeh quickly launched an ambitious plan to "demilitarize" the conflict with Israel and streamline the web of Palestinian police and security forces.

"I was against any kind of armed struggle," said Mr. Yehiyeh, who is a former general of both the Syrian army and the Palestinian Liberation Army. "I was in disagreement with the concept."

Mr. Yehiyeh shocked some Palestinians with his frank denunciations of suicide attacks on Israelis, which he described as both tactically and morally misguided. He said that the suicide-bombing campaign "contradicts our religious, moral and cultural beliefs." He argued for replacing armed resistance to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories with civil resistance.

Although he was careful to avoid criticizing Mr. Arafat directly during the interview, it was clear that he became exasperated with the obstacles the Palestinian leader put in his way.

"The issue of commanders in the police sector was a big issue," he said. "It was difficult to convince the leadership to make changes."

Mr. Yehiyeh hinted that Mr. Arafat was shocked at demonstrations that erupted after he ousted the Palestinian security chief on the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub. For a time, Mr. Rajoub waged a defiant public campaign to retain his job. "At the end of the day, I am a soldier," Mr. Yehiyeh said, "and I would not tolerate anyone staying in place beyond his time."

Mr. Yehiyeh said his efforts to dampen the conflict with Israel, although they enjoyed broad international support, were also deliberately undermined by militant organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

When he negotiated a scheme for Israel to hand over security control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the militants launched attacks on settlements and Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip.

"The factions in the Gaza Strip that were opposed to my strategy launched attacks that provoked the Israeli defence minister [then Binyamin Ben-Eliezer] to cancel negotiations," he said.

In frustration, Mr. Yehiyeh sent a letter to Mr. Arafat on Sept. 9, saying that he was "suspending" his work as interior minister. Mr. Arafat tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to change his mind. However, that drama was obscured by a political earthquake two days later when the Palestinian parliament forced the entire cabinet to resign in protest over the cronyism and corruption of Mr. Arafat's government.

By the time Mr. Arafat appointed a new cabinet last month, he had recuperated some of his political strength as a result of an Israeli siege of his home and office in Ramallah. He replaced the independent Mr. Yehiyeh with Hani al-Hassan, a long-time associate.

Mr. Arafat's aides suggested at the time that Mr. Yehiyeh did not want to return to government because of the illness of his wife, which he flatly denied. He had no intention of returning to the government, he insisted, once it was evident that he could not achieve real reform.

Mr. Yehiyeh is critical of his successor, Mr. al-Hassan, who has said that he opposes Palestinian attacks inside Israel but sees nothing wrong with attacks on Israeli soldiers or Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories.

"From a legal and theoretical point of view that may be correct," he said. "But I look at it in terms of profit and loss. This won't do us any good and we should stop it."

Remarkably, despite the frustrations he faced, Mr. Yehiyeh believes that the idea of replacing armed struggle with civil resistance is gaining ground with the Palestinian public, for whom the two-year-old uprising has brought a life of daily misery.

"I believe that future events and situations will eventually impose [themselves] on the Palestinian government," he said, "and it will have no choice but to undertake reform."