Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Tuesday accused Israel of seeking to "crush the Palestinians" militarily and insisted he has kept his end of the bargain on restoring calm.
"The goal is to crush the Palestinians militarily," Arafat was quoted by AFP as telling reporters during a visit to Egypt, citing tough talk from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his military aides Shaul Mofaz and Binyamin Ben Eliezer.
Sharon warned Monday that his security cabinet had considered unleashing a "total offensive" against the Palestinians but had instead opted for a policy of "active self-defense."
That policy is interpreted as one of assassinating Palestinian militant leaders, a policy which Arafat denounced in Cairo following his talks with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, said AFP.
Arafat, who also met in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, denounced the murder of "not only the leaders of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, but also those of Fateh," his own faction.
Late Sunday, three Palestinian militants, two from Jihad and one from Fateh, were killed by rockets fired on their car from an Israeli helicopter near the West Bank town of Jenin.
He accused the Israelis of violating the ceasefire and commitments made during a tour of the region by CIA Director George Tenet on June 9.
"The blockade was to have been lifted and punitive attacks, murders, and assassinations as well as crimes by settlers with the Israeli army's help and protection were to have stopped in two weeks," in line with the commitments, he said.
"On the contrary, the attacks increased," Arafat charged. "We are currently passing through a very dangerous phase."
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU), which was chaired by Belgium Monday, condemned the latest “violent actions in the Middle East,” reported Kuwaiti official news agency (KUNA).
The 15-member bloc called on the concerned parties to practice "self restraint and abandon any action that might thwart the peace efforts in the region."
It said "any violent act is unjustified." Belgium, which succeeds Sweden for a six-month presidency, said it was contacting its European allies to prepare "the suitable reaction for the latest events in the Middle East." – Albawaba.com
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