US says Arafat is off limits

FROM CHRISTOPHER WALKER IN JERUSALEM

WHEN President Bush met Ariel Sharon in Washington last Sunday evening, he asked the Israeli Prime Minister not to harm Yassir Arafat deliberately.

According to well-placed Israeli security sources, Mr Sharon agreed to the request, which the US made because any such action might bring instability in the Arab world and hinder its fight against international terrorism.

One source who publicised details of the Bush-Sharon talks quoted Mr Sharon as telling his Cabinet at the emergency session on Tuesday, which branded the Palestinian Authority a “terror-supporting entity,” that during the hour-long Israeli-US meeting “I promised Bush I would not touch Arafat, but I can get close to him”.

With Mr Arafat humiliated and stranded at his West Bank headquarters until he gets new helicopters, President Mubarak of Egypt said that he planned to send a senior envoy, Omar Sulaiman, the chief of Egyptian Intelligence, to Jerusalem with a similar message that Mr Arafat should not be harmed.

Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.