World reacts with alarm to Mideast violence
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By Helen Popper
LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - World leaders expressed alarm
at the deteriorating situation in the Middle East on Friday,
with Russia criticising Israel's measures to isolate Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat.
Following a Palestinian suicide attack that killed 20
Israelis, Israeli troops smashed their way into Arafat's West
Bank compound, declaring him an enemy and triggering street gun
battles.
"Moscow is extremely concerned about the alarming dynamics
of developments in the region," Interfax news agency quoted a
Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Israel's announced
intention to isolate Arafat "is not the way that could help find
a political solution to the current situation", Interfax
reported.
He called for action by the international community "to halt
this crisis which threatens not only regional stability but
could also spill over beyond the region".
The European Union reaffirmed that Arafat remained a
legitimate authority and its interlocutor for peace, while
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine criticised Israel's
"attempt to stifle Arafat".
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke by telephone to
Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to press for a
ceasefire and urge both sides to seize the opportunity offered
by an Arab summit's endorsement of Saudi peace proposals.
"Arafat is our interlocutor, as EU leaders said at the
Barcelona summit (on March 16). He remains our interlocutor and
the legitimate authority," Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach
told Reuters.
She said the EU considered that Israel had a legitimate
right to fight terrorism, but "military means are not going to
solve the problem of terrorism".
Vedrine told Radio France Internationale the chances of
peace were "very slight".
"I understand how the Israelis might feel faced with this
terrifying pressure of attacks...but I don't think that massive
repression and the attempt to stifle Arafat...can lead to a
solution," he added.
SERIOUS CONCERN
China expressed "serious concern" and called for an
immediate ceasefire on both sides.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing called for "urgent action"
by the international community to get both sides back to the
negotiating table as soon as possible and said China was willing
to work with the relevant sides.
"We strongly call on both the Israelis and Palestinians to
exercise restraint to the greatest extent possible, immediately
cease all violent activities and avoid heading towards total
conflict," the ministry said in a statement.
The Russian official said Moscow was contemplating a range
of measures to quell the violence including raising the issue at
the U.N. Security Council and undertaking joint action with the
United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
Moscow and Washington are the co-sponsors of the stalled
Middle East peace process.
Andrei Vdovin, Russia's special envoy in the region, was due
to fly from Beirut, where he was attending the Arab League
summit, to the Syrian capital Damascus, the official said. He
could go to Israel to meet U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni afterwards.
Speaking after another Palestinian suicide bombing in a
Jerusalem supermarket on Friday, a U.S. embassy official said
Zinni planned to continue talks to secure a truce in the 18
months of bloodshed.
Turkey, which has backed Palestinian aspirations to
statehood while maintaining close diplomatic and military ties
with Israel, said it was "deeply wounded" by the new violence.
"We call on both sides to take a rational path. Particularly
Israel, in order to display rational, forward-looking and
constructive stances, needs to review many concepts and views it
holds," Turkish state minister and government spokesman, Sukru
Sina Gurel was quoted as saying by state news agency Anatolian.
29 MAR 2002 12:41:39
World reacts with alarm to Mideast violence
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