Arafat brushes off latest Israeli threats

Arafat brushes off latest Israeli threats

Associated Press Ramallah/Kuala Lumpur

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat brushed off new Israeli threats against him on Saturday, telling several thousand supporters that Israel can never get rid of him.

Arafat spoke after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was no longer bound by an earlier promise to Washington not to harm the Palestinian leader.

Speaking in poetic Arabic to the cheering crowds, Arafat referred to himself as a "mountain."

"I tell Sharon and his gang, 'Oh mountain, the wind will never move you,"' he said. Despite the defiant statements, however, Arafat confidants said he was concerned about the latest threats.

In new violence, Israeli forces killed three militants in the West Bank town of Jenin, residents and witnesses said. The army said the men were preparing a suicide bombing inside Israel and were killed after firing at soldiers who were trying to arrest them.

The men were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction.

Sharon's remarks, in an Israeli television interview on Friday, were seen as his strongest threat against Arafat yet. The warnings came ahead of a May 2 vote among 200,000 members of the ruling Likud Party on Sharon's plan of "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, and was seen as an attempt by the prime minister to boost his support among the most hawkish party members.

Polls have indicated that Sharon has just a slight lead, despite his assertion that the plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements will boost Israeli security.

Defeat would be a serious blow to the prime minister, and he would come under great pressure to step down. In recent days, Sharon has rolled back from a promise to honor the Likud vote. He said the referendum is advisory in nature and that he would present his plan to the Cabinet and parliament even if the party rejects it.

In the Channel Two television interview, Sharon said he told Bush in a White House meeting last week that he is no longer bound by a promise, made three years ago, not to harm Arafat.

"My obligation no longer exists," Sharon said. "I am freed of this obligation. I freed myself from this obligation regarding Arafat."

The White House confirmed on Friday that the issue came up, saying Bush had repeated his opposition to an attack on Arafat.

Meanwhile in Kuala Lumpur, members of the world's largest Islamic organization will try to help restore the flagging Palestinian-Israeli peace process in a meeting with U.S., European and United Nations officials, a report said on Saturday.

Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said a delegation from the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference would meet with officials from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia, the national news agency Bernama reported.

Syed Hamid said scheduling of the meeting was being worked out.

"We have received positive reaction from Britain, Russia and the U.S. People are noticing what we are doing," Bernama news agency quoted him as saying. The report gave no other details.