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US bias led to new Israeli threat against Arafat, PM charges

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said yesterday that US bias towards Israel had emboldened Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to issue a new threat against the life of President Yasser Arafat.

In comments that could rally support within his right-wing Likud party ahead of a May 2 vote by its members on his Gaza pullout plan, Sharon said on Friday he no longer felt bound by his pledge to US President George W. Bush not to harm Arafat.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said as far as Washington was concerned, the promise stood. US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned Sharon's chief of staff to say the US opposed any move against Arafat, a US official said.

Qurie, in a statement issued by his office, said harming Arafat would end any hope of Israeli-Palestinian peace and open a new chapter in more than three years of violence. "The flagrant bias of the United States towards Israel and its gambling of Palestinian interests through the unjust guarantees it gave recently on the peace process are the direct causes for Sharon's blustery comments threatening the life of democratically elected President Arafat," Qurie said.
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