Posted on 10/08/2002 4:09:48 PM PDT by knighthawk
Ramallah - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met late on Monday with the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, amid heavy violence which the envoy said had left him "shocked."
Solana said nothing upon entering Arafat's wrecked headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, following a massive Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip and deadly clashes between Palestinian police and the Islamic group Hamas.
He earlier told Israeli television an overnight tank and helicopter raid into the central Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis to hunt down militants which killed 14 Palestinians and wounded scores of others had left him "shocked."
"I am shocked to listen to what happened overnight, I have to condemn in the same terms all acts of violence," he said. Earlier in Copenhagen, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, also condemned the raid.
"I regret and condemn very much the acts which have been committed by the Israeli army this morning," he said.
"I ask now the Palestinians to control the possible terrorists so they do not retaliate," he told reporters.
Deadly inter-Palestinian tensions also exploded in Gaza, when Hamas was accused of abducting and killing the head of the riot police in retaliation for the deaths of two young demonstrators in anti-US rallies a year ago which degenerated into riots. Four Palestinians were killed in clashes with police.
Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said Sunday he had asked European officials not to meet with the Palestinian leader, isolated in Ramallah after an Israeli siege last month.
"European officials' contacts with Arafat and their messages of sympathy toward him are a waste of time," said the Labour party hawk.
The EU has urged Israel and the Palestinians to back a "road map" for peace agreed by the international diplomatic quartet and setting out a plan foreseeing the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
As non-allies, IMO, as long as we deal with our threats, they can clean up their own mess this time.
The debris are a nice metaphore for the Euro, Solana and Arafat. Long live the free dollar.
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