Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has freely admitted planning to "get rid of" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and warned it would be a serious mistake.
Ecevit was quoted by AFP as saying that Sharon acknowledged his intention when the two spoke on Tuesday, the same day he lashed out at Israel's latest strikes on the Palestinians following a string of deadly suicide bombings.
"In my telephone conversation with Mr. Sharon the other day, he openly expressed his intention to get rid of Mr. Arafat," said Ecevit, without giving details. Turkey is Israel's chief ally in the embattled Middle East.
The Turkish prime minister told a press conference here that Arafat was an "irreplaceable" leader and that the situation in the region could only get worse "if the Arafat factor is eliminated."
Israel has officially denied trying to oust Arafat, though dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has hinted his Labor party could pull out of Sharon's coalition government over its aggressive treatment of the Palestinian leader.
Ecevit called on the United States to intervene urgently in the Middle East crisis and said Arafat "must be free to move about his own territory and Mr Sharon must agree to talks with him as soon as possible."
He suggested talks be held in Turkey "far away from the media."
In response, a Palestinian official was quoted by AFP as warning Sharon against “playing with fire.”
During a visit by Sharon to Ankara in August, Ecevit warned him that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict without a political solution was bound to harm relations between Israel and Turkey.
Sharon, accompanied by Minister of Industry and Trade Dalia Itzik and Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzipi Livni, was in Turkey on a one-day visit for meetings with Ecevit and other senior statesmen.
During the meeting, Ecevit told Sharon that the Israeli demand for a complete end to violence before the start of negotiations was “unrealistic,” AFP and Haaretz said at the time.
At this stage, he told Sharon, there was a need to renew negotiations, lift closures on Palestinian areas and allow international observers into the Occupied Territories.
"In the last few years our relations have developed in the fields of economic, technological and security relations," said Ecevit, when asked at a joint press conference after the meeting if the current situation would damage Turkey's good relations with Israel.
"We give a great deal of importance to quiet and stability in the Mideast and we don't want events in the area to badly affect these relations.” -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
