|
Arafat
Launches Inquiry Into Ship Affair
 |
| Arafat
launches inquiry during meeting with Solana |
GAZA CITY, Jan 8 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - Palestinian president Yasser Arafat is launching an
inquiry into a ship laden with tons of weapons seized by Israel in the Red Sea,
and pledged to punish any Palestinians who are implicated in the affair, a top
Arafat aide said late Monday.
"President Arafat has
announced the creation of a commission of inquiry into this ship," Nabil
Abu Rudeina told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone from the West Bank city
of Ramallah, after a meeting there between the Palestinian leader and European
Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
"President Arafat also
stressed that all those who are implicated in the affair will be punished if
proof is established," he said.
Rudeina also said Arafat repeated a proposal during the meeting that the United
States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations participate in an
international inquiry in the affair.
"In any case we will pass on the results of our internal inquiry to the
Americans, Europeans, Russians and the United Nations," he said.
Late Sunday, the Palestinian leadership accused Israel of making up pretexts to
keep up attacks on Arafat.
"Israel is seeking pretexts to plan new aggressions against the Palestinian
people and to disengage from the accords concluded" with the Palestinian
Authority, it said in an official statement released in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, in Cairo, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Monday that
contradictory reports about the ship "raise many doubts."
"A closer look at such information shows that this issue raises a lot of
doubts," Maher told reporters.
"They (Israelis) say that this freighter was intercepted 500 kilometers
(300 miles) away (from southern Israeli shores) in the Red Sea, so how did they
know its destination?" he asked.
"They first said that the cargo was heading to Eilat, then they said it was
to have passed through the Suez Canal, but both cases are illogical," he
said.
"It is incredible for the Palestinians to attempt to enter arms through the
port of Eilat or the Suez Canal because the Egyptian authorities take all
necessary measures to block arms smuggling through the Canal," he
explained.
Maher also noted that "reports from the United States have indicated that
these arms were meant for the Lebanese Hezbollah" Resistance group.
"Contradictory versions concerning this ship raise many doubts," he
repeated.
On the same note, the Iraqi
government accused Israel of "piracy" for capturing the ship, reported
AFP.
In a meeting chaired by
President Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi cabinet "reviewed the piracy committed
by the Zionists in seizing in the Red Sea a ship by claiming that it was
transporting arms destined for the Palestinians," said the state Iraqi News
Agency INA.
"The action of the
Zionist entity, committed 500 kilometers from its shores, is a crime of piracy,
an aggression against freedom of navigation and a flagrant violation of
international laws," the agency reported the cabinet as saying.
On Monday, the London-based shipping publication, Lloyd's List also reported
that it appeared the ship was probably Iraqi-owned, rather than belonging to the
Palestinians, as Israel has charged.
It said it was unlikely, but not impossible, that
an Iraqi-owned vessel would be shipping Iranian arms. However, the paper said
the ship could have changed hands since being bought by an Iraqi national, or
the shipment could have been a purely business affair.
|
