Arafat Snubbed by Arabs

After Bush said the Palestinians should find another leaderand get rid of Yasser Arafat, Arab leaders have had to cometo terms with the fact that neither the U.S. or Israel willdeal with him anymore. U.S. State Department spokesmanRichard Boucher confirmed this when he said that Secretaryof State Colin Powell “has no plans to talk to chairmanArafat. I think we made that quite clear.”

Arafat’s former Arab allies are now searching for areplacement they can support. “The idea is to make it clearto the Palestinians that Arafat is the sole obstacle to thegoal of achieving a Palestinian state,” an Arab diplomaticsource says. “This has placed unprecedented pressure onArafat.”

Sources say that Arafat is expected to step down by the endof the year. He?s considering a proposal by Egypt and SaudiArabia to accept a ceremonial post, such as president, inany new Palestinian government. He?s rejected several offersto go into exile.

The Jordanian newspaper Al Majd weekly quoted seniorPalestinian sources as saying that Palestinian LegislativeCouncil speaker Ahmed Qurei is Arafat’s most likelysuccessor. It?s rumored that Arafat has been actingerratically, firing and rehiring his security chiefs anddemoralizing his remaining supporters. His decisions arebeing ignored by Palestinian officials like PreventiveSecurity Apparatus chief Jibril Rajoub and intelligencechief Tawfik Tirawi.

Meanwhile, terrorism is thriving in Lebanon, since Iran hasbeen flying weapons to Hizbullah terrorists by going throughIraq. The flights begin in Teheran and move through Baghdadand central Iraq, ending up in Damascus, thus avoiding theno-fly zones set up by the U.K. and the U.S. Iran has beenoperating the flights twice weekly. Iran and Iraq disagreeon many things, but it looks like they can agree on armingterrorists in Lebanon.

When it comes to terrorist activities, why are we always thelast to know? To find out, read ?The Bureau: The SecretHistory of the FBI by Ronald Kessler,click here.

To read aboutArafat,clickhere.

To read about Iran weaponsairlifts,clickhere.

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