Middle East
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U.S. pressures Arafat on terrorists
12/06/01By BETH GARDINER
Associated Press Writer
 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat AP/Lefteris Pitarakis |
JERUSALEM — U.S. envoys urged Yasser Arafat to take harsh measures against Islamic militants in meetings and a phone call hours before a suicide bomber detonated explosives Wednesday outside a Jerusalem hotel, further rattling terror-weary Israelis' nerves.
In Arafat's boldest move yet against militants, Palestinian police put Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin under house arrest late Wednesday. Hamas has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks, including deadly weekend suicide bombings in Israel.
Palestinian security officials said Yassin, a quadriplegic, was told he would be allowed no visitors except for relatives, and his telephone lines would be cut.
More than 600 Hamas supporters, some of them carrying weapons, gathered in the street near Yassin's home on Wednesday night, demanding his release. Some threw stones at Palestinian police outside the building. Others fired automatic weapons in the air.
The Palestinian leader, meanwhile, appealed to President Bush, in a letter hand-delivered Wednesday, for more time to prove he really is trying to stop terrorist violence against Israelis.
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who met with Bush on Wednesday, told reporters he gave the president ``fresh messages'' from the Middle East: Arafat's letter plus word from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israel had ended its retaliatory strikes on Palestinian targets.
In a telephone conversation earlier Wednesday, ``Sharon said he had no intention of attacking Palestinian targets more, and for the last 26 hours, there has been no attack,'' Bondevik told journalists on the White House driveway.
As for Arafat's message to Bush, ``The main message was, `Give me a chance,''' said Bondevik.
Wednesday night, the Senate approved a resolution expressing U.S. solidarity with Israel and ratified two United Nations treaties that would commit countries to fighting terrorism.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he urged the Palestinian leader to arrest 36 suspected terrorist leaders, while other Israeli officials dismissed Arafat's arrests of 151 people in recent days as a show.
Arafat countered that he was determined to break the terror networks in the Palestinian territories, but Israeli military strikes and sieges were making the job impossible.
``They have to cool down to give me the chance,'' he told ABC News.
Israel's air force struck Palestinian targets Monday and Tuesday, but there were no Israeli strikes on Wednesday in what Palestinian officials said was a lull aimed at allowing Arafat to act.
An early morning explosion outside a central Jerusalem hotel showed his task was far from finished.
Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said the bomber may have gotten nervous and detonated the explosives strapped to his body and packed with nails and bolts too early. The attacker died and two bystanders were lightly injured.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the blast — a chilling reminder of a wave of weekend attacks that killed 25 people — in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.
``This operation is only an introductory and rapid response to the crimes of the Israeli enemy,'' the statement said. It identified the dead bomber as Dawoud Ali Ahmed Abu Sawi, of Artas near Bethlehem.
The United States told Arafat he must crack down on such activity, Palestinian Cabinet Minister Nabil Shaath said.
``The American side asked us to take measures to ensure the cease-fire and the calming,'' Shaath said.
But Shaath said Israel's attacks on the Palestinians have gotten in the way.
``We are exerting 100 percent efforts to implement our commitments, and the Israelis are exerting 100 percent efforts to topple our efforts,'' he said. ``I wonder how they can ask the Palestinian policemen who are subject to Israeli raids by day to arrest Palestinian militants at night.''
Peres said Arafat had made the same complaint to him.
``Yasser Arafat called me and he told me that he wants to take matters in hand but we aren't letting him,'' Peres said.
``I told him: 'Listen, everything depends on you, and only on you ... You were given a list of 36 people that in our estimation are at the head of the terrorism, and I very much recommend that you put them in jail.'''
U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni met Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, resuming a peace mission stalled by the suicide attacks and Israeli retaliation. According to a statement from Sharon's office, Sharon said only international pressure would cause Arafat to change his policy of supporting terrorism.
Palestinian security officials said they now had 151 suspected militants in custody, including members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister in October to avenge the earlier killing of its leader by Israel.
Israel's attacks Monday and Tuesday were retaliation for the weekend Palestinian suicide bombings in Jerusalem and the northern port city of Haifa. As the strikes began, Sharon accused Arafat of supporting terrorism.
The Israeli attacks killed two Palestinians, injured more than 100, destroyed three of Arafat's helicopters and hit his West Bank headquarters just yards from the office where he was working. There were no strikes Wednesday.
Wednesday's blast spattered blood on one wall of the David Citadel Hotel and workers used hoses to clean it from second-floor windows. Parts of the bomber's body were strewn along the street, and police spokesman Gil Kleiman said his head was found in a room on the hotel's second floor.
Two people waiting at a nearby bus stop when the blast went off just after 7:35 a.m. suffered minor injuries.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Ziad Abu Zayyad condemned the attack and said such bombings ``cause great damage to the Palestinian national interest.''