Israel has proposed that besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be flown into exile by European diplomats, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday, raising such a possibility for the first time in public.
Palestinian officials said Arafat would never agree to go into exile.
In a tour of West Bank army bases Tuesday, Sharon said he was asked by European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos whether Arafat would be able to leave Ramallah. "I told him (Moratinos), if they (European diplomats) would like, they will fly with a helicopter and will take him (Arafat) from here," Sharon said in remarks carried by Israel Radio.
"First I would have to bring this to the Cabinet, second he (Arafat) can't take anyone with him, the murderers who are located around him there and the third thing is that it would have to be a one-way ticket," Sharon said. "He (Arafat) will not be able to return."
Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said that Arafat "will not leave Palestine." "Arafat will stand there (in Ramallah) and live or get killed and be a martyr," Shaath said from Cairo.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday Arafat would not accept exile from his homeland under any circumstances. "Arafat said there is not a single Palestinian who will accept going into exile under any circumstances," Erekat told Reuters. "Sharon's announcement is preparation for an attempt to kill Arafat."
The Israeli daily Haaretz said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres discussed possible arrangements for Arafat's exile with Egyptian officials who rejected the plan. Officials in Peres' office said he did not discuss Arafat's expulsion with Egyptian officials.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday dismissed the suggestions that Arafat should be driven into exile and said he expected Israel's incursion into the West Bank city of Ramallah to last a couple of weeks.
Powell said Arafat had an important role to play in the Middle East peace process and should not be forced out of Ramallah into exile.
"Sending him to exile will just give him another place from which to conduct the same kinds of activities and give the same messages as he is giving now. Until he decides to leave the country, it seems to me we need to work with him where he is," Powell told ABC's "Good Morning America" show.
Powell reiterated on Tuesday that Arafat needed to take a more active role in ending the violence. "He has not done enough in our judgment with respect to stopping the terrorist activities or calling upon his people to stop conducting activities of this kind," he conveyed. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
