Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has "no right" to accept the latest US proposals for a peace deal with the Israelis, a leading conservative Iranian cleric said Friday.
"Fortunately, negotiations have now reached a dead-end and terminated in crisis," Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Iran's former top judge, said at weekly prayers at Tehran university.
"The plan is unacceptable to the Palestinians. It is their right to return to their homeland, and Arafat has no right to agree to the US suggestions," Yazdi said, cheered on by cries of "Death to America."
He dismissed the latest proposal put forward by US President Bill Clinton as "just like all the other offers they've made in the past -- it is to the benefit of the Israelis."
Iran does not recognize the Jewish state and has welcomed the latest Palestinian uprising, which has left more than 350 people dead, most of them Palestinians killed by Israeli troops, in three months of violence.
Iran, which has worked to forge a worldwide Muslim consensus on the Palestinian question, insists that all of the estimated 3.7 million Palestinian refugees be allowed to return home.
The latest US proposal reportedly would give the Palestinians control of some parts of east Jerusalem, 95 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip if they give up their demand for the refugees' right of return.
A summit scheduled for Thursday in Egypt between Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was called off, reportedly because of disagreements over the US plan.
"Muslims around the world must think of the Palestinians," said Yazdi, whose sermon was carried live on state radio. "Hopefully their land will once again belong to its rightful owners" -- TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
