Yasser Arafat insisted on Monday he would not be sidelined by a Palestinian political shakeup and said his old nemesis, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was not ready to pay the price for peace.
The Palestinian president told the Israeli newspaper Maariv he had no intention of fading away.
"I am the elected president of the Palestinian people...the whole world knows this," Arafat was quoted as saying in his West Bank compound. "I plan to welcome the many leaders who will come here to Ramallah to meet me in the coming weeks."
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi is to meet him on Tuesday.
Arafat expressed doubts about Sharon's sincerity. "Sharon is not prepared to pay the price of peace," he told Maariv. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
