WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAFT SAYS THAT ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S COMMENTS ON PRESENCE OF AL QAEDA MEMBERS IN THE GAZA STRIP ARE "BIG LIES"

Record ID: 400197

  • Title: WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAFT SAYS THAT ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S COMMENTS ON PRESENCE OF AL QAEDA MEMBERS IN THE GAZA STRIP ARE "BIG LIES"
  • Date: 8th December 2002
  • Summary: (U4) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 7, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. MV PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT SURROUNDED BY SECURITY AND MEDIA OUTSIDE HIS HEADQUARTERS 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT SAYING "It is a big, big, big lie to cover his attacks and his crimes against our people everywhere, from Rafah to Jenin and in betwee
  • Embargoed: 23rd December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA2OYC1B10UGA46WV686WDJE40
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has said that
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's comments on the presence
    of al-Qaeda members in the Gaza Strip are "big lies" and are
    intended to justify Israel's recent and possibly future
    assaults on the city. A Palestinian official added that
    Israel's Mossad has formed "a cell under the name of al-Qaeda
    in the Gaza Strip in order to justify the assault and the
    military campaigns of the Israeli occupation army".

    Arafat said on Saturday (December 7, 2002) that Sharon's
    comments from earlier in the week on the presence of al-Qaeda
    members in the Gaza Strip are "big lies."
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Thursday
    (December 5) members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network
    were in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

    "We have information about the presence of a few of them
    now in the Gaza Strip," Sharon told a meeting with media
    editors in Tel Aviv. "We know they are in Lebanon and
    co-operating closely with Hizbollah (guerrillas)."
    The comments came one day after the prime minister's
    office said Israel had arrested and deported a U.S. citizen
    last month who was suspected of distributing funds to
    Palestinian militants on behalf of al Qaeda.

    "It is a big, big, big lie to cover his [Sharon's]
    attacks", Arafat told reporters at his headquarters in the
    West Bank city of Ramallah following a series of meetings with
    religious leaders.

    Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo
    dismissed Sharon's comments saying "there are certain elements
    who were instructed by the Mossad to form a cell under the
    name of Al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip in order to justify the
    assault and the military campaigns of the Israeli occupation
    army against Gaza."
    He reiterated Palestinian fears that Israel was looking
    for an excuse to invade Gaza, where it often launches military
    raids to hunt for militants spearheading a Palestinian
    uprising for independence that began more than two years ago.

    "He's [Sharon] using them in order also to continue his
    assaults against the Palestinian civilian areas," Abed Rabbo
    said.

    The United States blames al Qaeda for the September 11
    attacks on New York and Washington last year.

    Israel suspects the group was behind a suicide bombing
    last week at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, that
    killed 16 people and a failed missile attack on an Israeli
    airliner taking off nearby.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register