Arafat: Roadmap to peace is dead
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today said the US-backed road map for Middle East peace is dead and that Israel is to blame.
The plan calls on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to end nearly three years of violence and envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.
It has been stalled for several weeks because of renewed fighting and a deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians on the dismantling of armed groups.
Israel has accused Arafat of getting in the way of the road map and trying to undermine his prime minister Mahmoud Abbas at every turn.
The men are embroiled in a power struggle and refuse to speak to each other.
CNN today quoted Arafat as saying the peace plan has no future.
“The road map is dead, but only because of Israeli military aggression in recent weeks,” Arafat said.
Israel yesterday said it may expel Arafat from Palestinian territory by the end of the year, calling him the biggest obstacle to peace.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said: “I think that he has to disappear from the stage of history, and not be included in the ranks of the Palestinian leadership.”
The latest escalation in violence was set off by a Hamas bus bombing in Jerusalem last month which killed 21 people.
Since then, 16 Palestinians – 11 Palestinian militants and five bystanders - have been killed in six Israeli helicopter strikes in the Gaza Strip.
After the first of the strikes – which killed Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab - Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups announced that they were cancelling a seven week ceasefire with Israel.
