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Palestinians Insist on International Inquiry Into Clashes: Arafat
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Thursday afternoon that the Palestinian side insists on the formation of a U.N. fact-finding committee on the bloody clashes between the Palestinians and Israeli forces.
He vowed to resort to all means "against the continuous Israeli aggressions."
Arafat made the pledge here at a press conference after returning from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, where he met earlier in the day with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on ways of ending the Palestinian-Israeli clashes that entered its eighth consecutive day on Thursday.
"We insist on the necessity of forming the U.N. committee to examine the flagrant atrocities faced by our people," he said.
"The atrocities go against international laws and violate all sanctities since live ammunition, rockets and helicopter gunships are used by Israel against our people," he added, noting that the Palestinian people were facing problems on "various levels."
Arafat thanked French President Jacques Chirac and Mubarak for their support offered to the Palestinian people in their talks held in Paris Wednesday and Sharm El Sheikh Thursday to end the bloodshed.
On the future plan to stop Israel's attacks on the Palestinians, Arafat said "we must use all means to repulse the serious attacks against our people."
Asked about Israel's objection to the proposed U.N. committee, which led to the failure of Wednesday's Paris talks, he said "don't forget that we referred the issue to the U.N. Security Council and the Geneva Committee on Human Rights. We did not stop and we have many means."
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