Posted on 05/01/2003 2:21:16 PM PDT by SJackson
Arafat: I am the elected President
By TJT Staff
The Jerusalem Times (independent Palestinian weekly) 1 May 2003
http://www.jerusalem-times.net/article/news/details/detail.asp?id=3259
President Yasser Arafat, 73, insisted on Monday he had no intention of fading away and said the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , was not ready to pay the price for peace. Arafat was referring to the Israeli and American efforts to sideline him and deal directly with his prime minister Mahmoud Abbas.
"I am the elected president of the Palestinian people...the whole world knows this," Arafat told the Israeli newspaper Maariv at his battered West Bank compound in Ramallah. "I plan to welcome the many leaders who will come here to Ramallah to meet me in the coming weeks."
Arafat has recently received a trickle of visits by European diplomats an on Monday met with the U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen and on Tuesday met with the Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi despite Israeli objections. Israel said Arafat is an obstacle to peace and demanded the foreign dignitaries to avoid meeting him.
Only the United States has followed Israel's lead and shunned Arafat, accusing him of not doing enough to rein in Palestinian militants -- an allegation he denies.
Arafat told Maariv: "Sharon is not prepared to pay the price of peace." He was referring to the Israeli government's demands to alter the roadmap's vision of reciprocal measures by each side and a timetable envisaging a Palestinian state by 2005.
Israel wants Palestinians to disarm militants, carry out security reforms, renounce the "right of return" to Israel of refugees from abroad and declare the conflict over before qualifying for the first trappings of statehood.
Asked what Sharon wanted, Arafat repeated his oft-stated view of a personal vendetta. "I think that this whole thing started in 1982 when I caused him to lose his medals, as well as his position as defense minister," he told Maariv.
Sharon, as defense minister, directed Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon that led to a siege of Arafat in Beirut. Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) guerrillas were forced to evacuate under international protection. Sharon resigned after an Israeli commission of inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militiamen in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.
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EU's Middle East envoy:Arafat is a key political figure
By TJT Staff
The Jerusalem Times (independent Palestinian weekly) 1 May 2003
http://www.jerusalem-times.net/article/news/details/detail.asp?id=3261Morati nos
[IMRA: Arafat remains in his office in order to provide refuge to the terrorists hiding there.]
The EU considers Yasser Arafat the President of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, said EU speaker last Saturday in Brussels in direct response to US demands to boycott Arafat. Miguel Angel Moratinos, the EU's Middle East envoy, also said Arafat remained a key political figure in an interview with Spanish radio last week.
US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones told the Publico daily that European leaders should stop visiting Arafat if they want to help the Mideast peace process. "The more European prime ministers go visit Arafat, the more Arafat will feel tempted to interfere in a negative way" in the establishment of a new Palestinian government, Jones said.
Jones said the EU had a responsibility, as co-author of the road map for Middle East peace, to "ensure that Yasser Arafat understood that he is no longer is in charge, that Abu Mazen is in charge and he must be supported."
Meanwhile, Radio Israel said Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, decided not to prevent foreign officials from visiting Arafat at his besieged headquarters in Ramallah last Sunday. However, the Radio added, Sharon, would boycott anyone who does meet Arafat and that Shalom would meet them instead.
Israel Radio said Sharon took the decision in a joint meeting with his foreign minister, silvan Shalom citing him saying the policy might severe Israel's relations with the international community. The first official Sharon boycotted was Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi after she insisted on meeting Arafat. Kawaguchi met Arafat last Tuesday.
Arafat has received fresh visits by diplomats from the European Union , United Nations and Russia, who co-drafted the road map as part of a peacemaking "Quartet" with the United States but have not followed Washington in boycotting the Palestinian president. Israel and US want Arafat relegated to a symbolic role to allow a new Palestinian leadership to emerge
Israel has kept Arafat at his battered headquarters in Ramallah for almost a year now preventing him from leaving Ramallah or the Palestinian areas. Several key Israeli Cabinet ministers have been clamoring for Arafat's expulsion, and last week the Israeli government denied that it had lifted the restrictions.
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No meddling in Palestinian affairs - all of us under the leadership of Abu Ammar
No meddling in Palestinian affairs - all of us under the leadership of Abu Ammar
By TJT Staff
The Jerusalem Times (independent Palestinian weekly) 1 May 2003
http://www.jerusalem-times.net/article/news/details/detail.asp?id=3253
Ramallah - Parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qurei made an opening speech at the PLC session Tuesday, calling on the international community to stop meddling in Palestinian internal affairs and to press Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land.
He thanked the world community for its backing of Palestinian reform efforts but snubbed calls for Arafat, also known as Abu Ammar, to be sidelined. "Thank your for your efforts but we are all of us under the leadership of Abu Ammar. We are waiting for you to deliver on your commitments and leave us alone. "Tell the occupier very frankly to end his occupation, tell the aggressor to stop his aggression," he said
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Clearly someone can't read a map.
Oh, did you ever think otherwise?
I think President Bush and his guys know full well that this "plan" will not happen, not because it's OUR fault, but because the Palis would have to behave like decent people for a change!
And they won't.
Tia
This is the Bush Administrations Road map. President Bush has said either your with us or aginst us. Whose side are you on?
Sigh
We'll have to see.
Tia
Arafat has recently received a trickle of visits by European diplomats an on Monday met with the U.N...
Only the United States has followed Israel's lead and shunned Arafat, accusing him of not doing enough to rein in Palestinian militants -- an allegation he denies.
If it wasn't for the EU, Russia and the UN, I don't think Arafat would be saying the same thing. The fact is that, the EU is sympathetic to the Palestinians and to Arafat even though Israel has insisted that Arafat be removed from any influence because of his involvement in terrorism.
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