Ariel Sharon has no intention of ever allowing Arafat to leave his battered West Bank compound, the Israeli prime minister said in a closed-door meeting yesterday.
Sharon, meeting with his advisers to review an Egyptian security proposal, said the 74-year-old Palestinian ruler will remain confined to his compound “for the next 45 years,” a participant in the meeting said.
Arafat has been trapped in his Ramallah compound, surrounded by Israeli troops, after launching the Intifada upon his return from the Camp David peace summit in 2000, where he turned down an offer of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Arafat has been able to receive visitors and grant media interviews, but Israel will not allow him to leave the compound grounds.
Egypt last month proposed allowing Arafat to move to Gaza, saying his presence there would help maintain order after Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal is implemented in the area.
Egypt also issued a strongly worded ultimatum to Arafat, demanding that he reform Palestinian security forces and give up power to a prime minister by June 15.
But Arafat’s response was ambiguous, saying he is prepared to reduce the number of security forces from eleven to three but refusing to restrict his powers in any way.
Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, who is running affairs while President Mubarak in Germany undergoes what Egyptian state media say is intense physical therapy for a slipped disc, issued another ultimatum to Arafat yesterday. He said Arafat must step aside and the Palestinian leadership must present a plan within two months to use the Palestinian security forces to fight terrorism.
Suleiman also demanded that the various Palestinian factions reach an agreement on a joint strategy for administering the Gaza Strip once Israel withdraws in 2005.
Egypt has expressed willingness to dispatch 200 security advisers to the Gaza Strip to retrain the PA security forces. The Egyptians also are in discussions with Israel about deploying a multinational force in the Gaza City port and at the Palestinian airport in the southern Gaza Strip.
