UN diplomats trade insults over Arafat

Palestinians have rallied behind their beleaguered leader

Israel and the Palestinians have traded blistering accusations as the UN debates Israel's threat to "remove" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman said Mr Arafat "lied" when he said he would renounce terrorism, and called him "his own people's devil of death and greatest tragedy".

Palestinian representative Nasser al-Kidwa said Israeli action against the veteran Palestinian leader would be "illegal and insane", and left the chamber as Mr Gillerman was speaking.

As the diplomats exchanged barbs in New York, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the country did not plan to take "immediate" action against Mr Arafat.

He distanced the government from a remark by deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert that Israel had not ruled out killing the Palestinian leader.

"It's not the official policy of the Israeli Government. It never has been," said Mr Shalom, who has advocated expelling Mr Arafat from the Palestinian territories.

He was speaking in the face of nearly universal condemnation of the Israeli decision last Thursday to take unspecified action against Mr Arafat.

International concern

On Monday, Britain summoned Israeli ambassador Zvi Shtauber to tell him such a move would be "unacceptable".

Olmert [left with PM Ariel Sharon] called Mr Arafat a murderer

At the weekend US Secretary of State Colin Powell - who is in the Middle East - said Israel would excite rage among Muslims by expelling or executing Mr Arafat.

The ambassadors were speaking as the Security Council met to continue discussions on a Palestinian resolution condemning Israel.

The UN's special envoy to the region, Terje Roed-Larsen, insisted that the Israel-Palestinian peace process is not dead, but the international community must do more to push it forward.

"It would be alarmist to speak of the demise of the peace process," envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said.

The removal of Chairman Arafat would be unhelpful and should not be implemented UN Security Council

But he warned that the "lack of trust between the parties illustrates need for continued and possibly increased activity by the international community".

He criticised Israel's so-called "security fence", saying the country had the right to take any security measures it wanted on its own territory, but not on other people's land.

Critics of the security fence say it separates Palestinians from their farmland and from each other, and that it is an attempt to set political borders.

Defenders say it is necessary to prevent attacks on Israelis, adding that it is not intended to influence negotiations on boundaries.

'Restrained' draft

Debate at the UN began on Friday and a vote might not take place until Tuesday.

On Friday, the Council issued a unanimous statement saying "the removal of Chairman Arafat would be unhelpful and should not be implemented".

Arafat has been confined to his compound for almost two years

UN diplomatic sources are quoted as saying the draft resolution is moderate to avoid a veto by the US, which is widely expected to abstain.

The draft demands that Israel "desist from any act of deportation and to cease any threat to the safety of the elected president of the Palestinian Authority".

It also condemns both "illegal assassinations and suicide terror attacks".

Israeli ambassador Gillerman on Monday accused the Security Council of "hypocrisy" for considering the resolution.

He said the Council had not convened to discuss Palestinian suicide bombings.

On hold

Last Thursday the Israeli security cabinet said it had agreed in principle to remove Mr Arafat at a time and in a manner of its choosing.

Thousands of Mr Arafat's supporters turned out in the West Bank, Gaza and in southern Lebanon on Sunday to pledge their allegiance and fight any attempt to remove him.

Israel has largely confined Mr Arafat to his compound in Ramallah since December 2001.

Officials from the Arab League are due to meet in Cairo on Monday, to discuss a common position on the issue.

Arab League ministers are scheduled to hold talks in New York on 22 September.