U.S. Involved in Offensive Against Arafat: Palestinian Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, March 30, 2002

U.S. Involved in Offensive Against Arafat: Palestinian Official

An advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on friday accused the United States of being involved in the Israeli army's attack on Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

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An advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on friday accused the United States of being involved in the Israeli army's attack on Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Mohamed Rashid, a Palestinian negotiator and advisor to Arafat, said that the United States was informed by Israel that the Israeli army would carry a wide-scale military offensive against Arafat, and "the U.S. did not stop Israel."

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saed Erekat met Friday afternoon with U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni in the West Bank town of Jericho to discuss ways of ending the deteriorated situation in thePalestinian territories.

"During the meeting, Zinni spoke with President Arafat who is under serious offensive and told him (Arafat) that he (Zinni) is going to do all his best to bring calmness to the situation," said Erekat.

Erekat said that Zinni told the Palestinian side that he was instructed to stay in the region and do all his best to end the bloodshed between Israeli and the Palestinians.

"If we want to assume that the United States did not give Israelthe green light to carry out its offensive, I would say that the U.S. did not also give Israel the red light to stop the offensive either," he added.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera Television Channel reported that Israeli troops broke into the building where Arafat is sitting, adding that there was exchange of fires between Arafat's bodyguardsand Israeli special troops taking place from one room to another.

"What (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is doing against thePalestinians is crazy, and considering Arafat as an enemy of Israelis an Israeli preparation to assassinate him," said Erekat.

He revealed that Arafat and his aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh are the only two people in Arafat's office and they are surrounded by Arafat's special bodyguards in the room.

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