Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Monday that his leadership condemned ”all kinds of terrorism,” in a key address to his parliament, adding that he was ready to stand down if the assembly wanted to replace him.
In his first speech to parliament in six months, the 73-year-old Palestinian leader, sometimes joking but looking frail and shaking as he sipped a glass of water, said Israel had used last September’s attacks on the United States to portray the Palestinian resistance to occupation as ”terrorism.”
”The Palestinian people stand today firmly against all kinds of terrorism, whether it is by states, groups or individuals,” he told the Palestinian parliament, whose Gaza Strip members were participating by video link-up.
He opposed any operations against Israeli and Palestinian civilians in an apparent call to Palestinian militants to end their attacks inside Israel, which have largely tapered off in the past five weeks.
Speaking ahead of the September 11 anniversary of the al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington, Arafat extended his condolences to the victims and said he was willing to join the US-led war on terror, if it stayed within international law.
”I’d like to tell the whole world and in particular the United States we are fully prepared to participate in any international effort to eradicate that kind of terrorism within the framework of the United Nations and international legitimacy,” he said.
But he said Israel had used the opportunity of the attacks to paint the Palestinian resistance, which has included suicide bombings and shooting sprees in Israeli cities, as ‘terrorism.”
”The Israeli government manipulated the changes after September 11 in order to brand our struggle terrorist and to cover the reoccupation of our land, while we are victims of terror,” he said.
He said Israel’s ongoing military occupation of the West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip had removed a ”horizon for peace” and was also threatening Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections slated for January next year.
”Presidential and parliamentary elections must take place but in a democratic atmosphere. Israel must lift its siege of Palestinian cities, withdraw its tanks… so that our people will be able to exert their democratic rights,” he said, calling for international observers to oversee the polls.
He said he wanted ”peace, security and stability for us and you (the Israelis) on the basis of the accords we signed.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week the 1993 Oslo peace accords which led the way to partial Palestinian self-rule were dead.
Arafat also said he was ready to relinquish his executive power — a demand made by US President George Bush — if the Palestinian Legislative Council wanted him to step down.
”If you want, you can bring somebody and replace me in the executive power, I wish you’d do it and give me some rest,” Arafat said, although the comment was made with a smile. – Sapa-AFP