MIDDLE EAST: Killing Mr Yasser Arafat is not official policy, the Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom said yesterday.
His remarks constituted a retreat from a statement on Sunday by the deputy Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Olmert, who declared that killing the Palestinian leader "is definitely one of the options" being considered by the government.
Mr Shalom said that physically eliminating the Palestinian Authority president "is not the official policy of the Israeli government. It was never before and we don't speak about any killing, we didn't speak about it before and we don't speak about it today." In remarks that drew sharp international criticism, Mr Olmert said Israel was "trying to eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of terror." His comments followed a decision last week, in principle, by the security cabinet to "remove" Mr Arafat after 15 Israelis were killed in two suicide bombings. The cabinet statement did not say how or when this would be done.
While Mr Shalom may oppose killing Mr Arafat, he still strongly supports the idea of expelling the Palestinian leader from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Other Israeli ministers have suggested imposing a tight siege on Mr Arafat's compound in Ramallah and severing all contact between him and the outside world.
Left-wing opposition parties have warned that removing Mr Arafat could spark anarchy in the territories, and that expelling him will only boost his support.
Responding to Mr Olmert's remarks, EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana told reporters in Brussels that the idea of killing the Palestinian leader "does not go through our imagination. I do not believe anything of that nature can take place." The US Treasury Secretary, Mr John Snow, arrived in Israel yesterday for a 10-day tour of the region.
With the US-backed road map peace plan in tatters, Mr Snow plans to emphasise possibilities for economic development in Israel and the Palestinian Authority as a way to promote the peace process.
The Bush administration has said it planned to withhold some funds from Israel because of its settlement activities in Palestinian areas.
The deductions would come from a $9 billion package of US loan guarantees to help Israel weather a deep recession and fiscal crisis. Under legislation authorizing the loan guarantees, the US would deduct from the face value of the loan guarantees an amount equal to any Israeli spending on settlement activities in Palestinian areas.