Sharon says Arafat's confinement lifted

EFE | 3/10/02

[kattracks]

Jerusalem, Mar 10, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday announced the lifting of the confinement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been restricted by Israeli troops and tanks to his offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah since early December.

It remained unclear whether that meant Arafat was immediately free to go where he wished.

Sharon said that, following the arrest of five men implicated in the assassination last October of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi last October, "it is to be presumed that the conditions that will allow Arafat to leave Ramallah will be created."

He commented at a military ceremony.

Israeli government sources said the Palestinian leader undoubtedly will be allowed to move about before U.S. Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni arrives in the region on Thursday.

    cps-el/dgm

http://www.efe.es

Copyright (c) 2002. Agencia EFE S.A.

[BlessedBeGod]

Damn.

[iav2]

Arafat "arrested" all the Ze'evi killers and that was the deal. Israel keeps it's word, unlike the Arabs.

[NativeNewYorker]

I don't understand the reasoning here.

Then again, I don't understand why Arafat and the dam upriver from Baghdad are still standing.

[l33t]

Many more Israeli civilians will need to die before Israel is allowed to do as we do and not as we say.

[NativeNewYorker]

I agree, sadly.

[xvb]

The good news is Arafat gets out of Ramallah. The bad news is all of his other offices have been bombed into oblivion. lol

[cibco]

A moving target is more sporting. oops!

[monkeyshine]

Well, a deal is a deal. Sharon is living up to his end of the deal. Arafat apparantly lived up to his side, too.

Could this be the start of something wonderful? Doubtful. But now Arafat has enough rope to hang himself if he so chooses.

[monkeyshine]

ROFL. I hadn't quite thought of it that way. Arafat is all dressed up, and nowhere to go.

[Former_russian]

Watching Arafat interviewed by Whorealdo, he reminded me of Leonid Brezhnev. He could hardly speak. You can hear his adviser on the background telling him what to say.

[l33t]

I hope the world and Israel in particular would not have to endure a Palestinian Andropov and Chernenko.

[Former_russian]

I hope so too.

[l33t]

Another shooting attack in Israel, this time unsuccessfull.

[Voltage]

Maybe they are letting him leave so they can demolish his last office?

[Catspaw]

Condi Rice signaled this last week. I thought I saw an article about it in the JPost.com. I'll see if I can find it.

[Catspaw]

Nope, it was that weenie, Powell:

http://google.com/url?sa=X&oi=news&start=0&num=3&q=http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/03/10/mideast/index.html

Earlier Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had urged Sharon to allow Arafat to attend the summit.

"I think that Prime Minister Sharon should give this serious consideration, as we get closer to the time of the summit," Powell had told CBS's Face the Nation.