Arafat Will Not Be Replaced by Hamas: Sharon

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 04, 2002

Arafat Will Not Be Replaced by Hamas: Sharon

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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Sunday that he did not believe that Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat would be replaced by the militant Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

"Whoever thinks that Hamas will replace Arafat is mistaken," he said during an interview on Israel's Channel Two television. "The Palestinians don't want Hamas."

He said the claims that 70 percent of the Palestinians support the radical group were exaggerated.

Sharon said that his meeting with three senior Palestinian officials last week did not represent a change in the Israeli policy and that he still considered Arafat as "irrelevant."

Sharon said he was prepared to propose an agreement that would ultimately lead to peace, but he would not provide details because they would therefore become the starting point of any diplomatic negotiations.

Sharon also said that the purpose of his meeting with senior Palestinian officials last week was to present to them what they need to do in order to bring about a renewal of diplomatic talks between the two sides.

On Arafat's article published in the New York times on Sunday, the prime minister said he was unimpressed. However, he said that there would be no right of Palestinian return to Israel, nor would Israel pull back to the 1967 borders.

In the article, Arafat said the right of return for Palestinian refugees has to be implemented in a way that takes into account Israel's demographic concerns.

"The Palestinian vision of peace is an independent and viable Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, living as an equal neighbor alongside Israel with peace and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples," said Arafat.

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