Sharon: Israel Should Have Killed Arafat Long Ago

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 01, 2002

Sharon: Israel Should Have Killed Arafat Long Ago

Ariel Sharon says he's sorry he didn't have Yasser Arafat "liquidated" while he had a chance --20 years ago, during an Israeli siege of Beirut.

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Ariel Sharon says he's sorry he didn't have Yasser Arafat "liquidated" while he had a chance-- 20 years ago, during an Israeli siege of Beirut.

Sharon's musings about the missed opportunity, published Thursday, raised eyebrows abroad but wouldn't have surprised most Middle Easterners, where the bitter, decades-long personal enmity is widely seen as a key element of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli prime minister spoke as his tanks surrounded Arafat's compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, trapping the Palestinian leader inside. His remarks in an interview with the Maariv daily coincide with speculation that this time, Sharon hopes to finish off his old enemy.

"Sharon's words are very dangerous," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. By expressing regret about not killing Arafat in 1982, Sharon "means he want to fix his mistake," Erekat said.

As defense minister in 1982, Sharon directed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization ruled a virtual state within a state. At first presented as a 48-hour operation to move the Palestinian forces out of southern Lebanon, the war expanded and Israeli forces eventually occupied Beirut.

Arafat, along with his top lieutenants and many fighters, was forced to board ships under the eye of the Israeli army and leave for Tunisia. An Israeli sniper said later he had Arafat in his gunsights, but instead of pulling the trigger, he took a picture of the defeated Palestinian leader.

"In Lebanon, there was an agreement not to liquidate Yasser Arafat," Sharon told the Maariv newspaper. "In principle, I'm sorry that we didn't liquidate him."

The paper plans to print the full interview Friday.

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