Washington will continue dealing with Yasser Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian people, US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns said Thursday, after Israel declared Arafat "irrelevant" and said it would no longer talk to him.
"We consider president Arafat to be the leader of the Palestinian people and we will continue to work with the Palestinian leadership as it must make the very difficult choices and move against the extremist groups who threaten the interests of the Palestinian people," Burns told a press conference in Damascus.
Burns, who is on a regional tour, was speaking after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who asked the United States to "play a more active role in halting the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," according to Syria's official SANA news agency.
The Israeli government announced overnight that it was severing all ties with Arafat, calling him "irrelevant," and pledging to go into Palestinian areas itself to hunt down "terrorists."
The move, accompanied by fierce air strikes on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, followed an attack by Palestinian militants on a bus which killed 10 Israeli settlers near Nablus -- AFP
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