JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYS ISRAEL HAS NO PLANS TO KILL PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT

Record ID: 400335

  • Title: JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYS ISRAEL HAS NO PLANS TO KILL PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT
  • Date: 27th October 2003
  • Summary: (U4) JERUSALEM (OCTOBER 27, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SPEAKING TO EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIANS 0.08 2. CU: PARLIAMENTARIANS LISTENING TO SHARON 0.11 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYING: "As about Yasser Arafat, you asked about Yasser Arafat. You don't have to worry - he is al
  • Embargoed: 11th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVAOR1RLSTRW92TVDGYG88IC673
  • Story Text: Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon says Israel has
    no plans to kill Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.


    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said for the
    first time in public on Monday (October 27) that Israel had
    no plans to kill Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

    "I don't see any plans to kill him although the man is
    responsible for deaths of hundreds, of thousands of mostly
    civilians because his strategy is a strategy of terror,"
    Sharon told a group of European parliamentarians visiting
    Jerusalem.

    Israel has said it would seek the "removal" of Arafat,
    whom it accuses of fomenting violent attacks since the
    launch of a Palestinian uprising for statehood three years
    ago. Arafat denies the allegation.

    Political sources had said Sharon had ruled out
    assassinating Arafat, but it was the first time the
    right-wing Israeli leader has said so publicly.

    Israeli cabinet members have talked openly of expelling
    Arafat, a former guerrilla leader who returned from exile
    as the head of the Palestinian Authority under 1993 interim
    peace accords.

    The threat has drawn strong international opposition,
    including from Washington, Israel's main ally.

    The English-language Jerusalem Post newspaper last week
    published an article with a senior military source saying
    the army had drawn up plans to deport Arafat from his
    headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah where he has
    been confined by Israeli tanks for almost two years.

    Meanwhile, in Ramallah, Palestinian Prime Minister
    Ahmed Qurie convened a weekly cabinet meeting.


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