Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Tuesday he hopes that the quartet summit, which is being held in New York, the United States, would help compel the Israeli army to pull out from the Palestinian-ruled West Bank cities.
"I hope the summit would help the Palestinian people end the Israel's occupation, closure and siege and end the aggression on the Palestinian people," he told reporters at his besieged headquarters of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia are meeting in New York Tuesday, where foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are scheduled to join the meetings.
Arafat blasted the United States for marginalizing his role and sidelining him.
"If the United States really believes in democracy, it should respect the choice of the Palestinian people, who elected their leader and their leadership in free elections supervised by the United Nations," said Arafat.
Several American scenarios recently emerged talking about creating a new and different leadership of the Palestinians, sidelining Arafat and giving him a ceremonial presidential role andcreating a new cabinet to be headed by a Palestinian prime minister.
"The United States should know that we are in Palestine, and we are not in Afghanistan," said Arafat, who has not been able to leave Ramallah since last December. The city has been reoccupied several times by Israeli troops ever since.
Commenting on the meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, Egypt, on Monday, Arafat said he supports such "encouraging" meetings.
"We encourage such meetings aiming at ending the Israeli army aggression on the Palestinian people, and compelling Israel to implement its commitments and return to the negotiation table," Arafat added.
(China Daily July 17, 2002)
