Arafat: US let roadmap die
2003-09-03 09:54
Washington - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly said on Tuesday that the United States-backed "roadmap" toward peace and a Palestinian state was dead because of Israeli aggression.
"The roadmap is dead, but only because of Israeli military aggression in recent weeks," he said in an off-camera interview with CNN, according to the network's website.
The interview took place in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Arafat also told CNN that the United States had let the plan die.
The roadmap was drafted by United States, United Nations, European Union and Russian officials.
Arafat told CNN that US preoccupation with Iraq and upcoming presidential elections got in the way of assuring implementation of the roadmap.
He also said that a split between him and Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas has been exaggerated.
'We should have expelled Arafat'
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said earlier on Tuesday that the government was to consider expelling Arafat as he was obstructing the peace process.
"Arafat is a very major obstacle for (Palestinian prime minister) Mahmud Abbas and for the whole political process," Mofaz told military radio.
"We made a historic mistake by not expelling him two years ago but we are going to address this issue in the short-term, without doubt before the end of the year."
Arafat has been effectively confined to his headquarters in Ramallah by the Israali army for the past 20 months.
Nuisance in exile
According to media reports, the majority of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet is in favour of expelling Arafat, but the security services have warned that he could have more of a "capacity for nuisance" in exile.
In recent weeks, the United States has increased pressure on Arafat to turn over the entire Palestinian security apparatus to Abbas in order to rein in militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
State department spokespeson Richard Boucher repeated those demands on Tuesday.
Arafat "needs to cooperate with the new government, he needs to turn over security services that have remained under his control to the control of the new government so that they can be real and effective action against terrorist groups by the Palestinian government," he said.
"Chairman Arafat needs to do that, and everybody who talks to him needs to call on him to do so."
Privately, US state department officials sought clarification from Israel over its defence minister's threat to expel Arafat.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they wanted to know whether Mofaz had been speaking personally or was reflecting the view of Sharon's government when he made the threat.