The Palestinian Authority on Friday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s thinly veiled assassination threat against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as an ”unprecedented escalation”.
”This is a serious threat, which is aimed at scuppering the peace process,” said Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina.
”With this fresh threat, Israel is prompting a new and unprecedented escalation which will have dangerous consequences.”
Sharon was asked by Israeli daily Haaretz whether Arafat and the head of the Lebanese fundamentalist militia Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, might be on Israel’s list of leaders to assassinate.
”I wouldn’t suggest either of them feels immune … Anyone who kills a Jew or harms an Israeli citizen, or sends people to kill Jews, is a marked man, period,” said the Israeli premier.
Sharon’s comment comes after the March 22 assassination he ordered of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a helicopter raid on Gaza City, Israel’s highest-profile targeted killing since the start of the Palestinian uprising three-and-a-half years ago. — Sapa-AFP