Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is "convinced" that deputy army chief General Moshe Yahalon wants to kill Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported Sunday.
The daily said Peres was certain Yahalon wanted to see Arafat liquidated, but the dovish left-wing foreign minister opposed any such move.
"Suppose we liquidate him, what will happen afterwards? In his place we will have Hamas or Islamic Jihad," he said in the paper, referring to two hardline Islamist groups which want to see Israel wiped off the map.
"Arafat recognises the existence of Israel, he wants to to talk to us and be accepted by the West, while the others (Islamists) would like to create a single state that stretches from Iraq to the Mediterranean," Peres said.
Asked about the comments, Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof refused on army radio to confirm or deny the charges. "Such a discussion can only be prejudicial for us," was all she would say -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
