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Peres Says Muslim Scholars to Blame for Anti-Occupation Attacks
BEIRUT, July 23 (News Agencies) - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres accused Islamic scholars of brainwashing Palestinians to carry out
self-sacrifice attacks, saying that the scholars should commit suicide themselves.
"Islamic clerics are brainwashing young Palestinians and telling them the lie that they will go straight to paradise if they commit suicide and murder Israelis," his office quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, the European Union said it "welcomes" U.S observers to help oversee a so-called truce between Israeli occupation forces and the Palestinians, if both sides agree on the matter, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Beirut Monday.
"The important thing is to have an international presence on the ground. For us Europeans, we don't care about the nationality of those people," said Solana after talks with President Emile Lahoud.
"If the Americans have the trust of both sides, they are welcome. It is fine if both sides accepted the Americans, we don't mind. It is not a question of nationality, it is a question of the process to continue to move in the right direction," he said.
Israeli officials on Monday rejected a call from G8 leaders at the weekend to accept full-fledged international observers, which the Palestinians say are needed to put an end to Israeli "aggression."
Israeli occupation officials say they believe an international force would in effect serve as a shield that would allow Palestinian occupation resistance to carry out anti-occupation attacks, but it has said it would allow observers from the United States only.
An unknown number of U.S intelligence agents are already in the region overseeing the June 13 ceasefire negotiated by CIA chief George Tenet, which has failed to put a stop to the violence that has left more than 650 dead since late September.
"The ceasefire is fragile, that's why we need to make all the efforts to stabilize the ceasefire not only that but to move to the next phase ... called the Mitchell roadmap," said Solana.
"Now the most important things are to try to make all the efforts so that we can move to the second phase, the so-called cooling off phase," he said.
Solana said "it will be very positive for all sides if an international monitoring scheme .., an independent presence on the ground that we think may help the implementation of the Mitchell report."
"This is the deal we are trying to explain to the leaders of different countries," said Solana who arrived here earlier Monday from neighboring Damascus, on the second leg of his tour in the tensed Middle East region.
Solana, who was accompanied by EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos, said his talks in Beirut were also focused on bilateral relations, mainly the partnership accord that the EU and Lebanon were expected to sign this summer.
"There are negotiations which are going on very well and there are difficulties which will be overcome," he said, before adding, "we will sign the accord as soon as possible, but I cannot fix an exact date."
Solana, who was coming from neighboring Syria where he held talks with President Bashar al-Assad, also met here with House Speaker Nabih Berri and was due to hold talks later Monday with Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud.
The Middle East has been engulfed by chaos since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising 10 months ago, with fighting threatening to spread to Israel's neighboring states.
Solana, who also plans to visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, aims to press for early implementation of the Mitchell report during his lightening tour.
The international plan, named after former U.S senator George Mitchell, recommends an immediate halt to fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces, a freeze on the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land and confidence-building measures by both sides ahead of new talks.
As decisions about the international observers were being debated elsewhere, violence continued on the ground Monday. A Palestinian boy, Rifat Al-Nahal, was killed by Israeli machine-gun fire on Monday after he was caught up in clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, a hospital source said.
The 15-year-old was shot in the back during the clashes at the border town of Rafah, between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip.
A member of the Palestinian activist group Islamic Jihad was killed by an elite Israeli border guard unit in Anin, near the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli police sources said. Mustafa Yassin, 28, was killed as he was attempting to run away from the border guards, they said.
But witnesses said he was shot in his house in Anin, where three other Palestinians were arrested as well. Yassin was suspected of having sent a Palestinian to carry out a bomb attack in the northern Israeli city of Haifa Sunday.
Earlier Monday, another member of Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Israeli occupation in recent years, was wounded in the leg when four masked men pulled alongside his car in Bethlehem and opened fire before fleeing.
Palestinian security sources told the French news agency AFP the shooting was an assassination bid by Israeli commandos. Israeli public radio reported it was a shoot-out between rival Palestinian activists.
Late Monday, two young Palestinian children were injured by Israeli shooting in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian sources said. A five-year-old girl was shot in the stomach while a four-year-old boy was hit in the leg in their house in Beitunia, near Ramallah.
Monday's deaths brought to 52 the number of people killed since the ceasefire was declared on June 13, and to 666 the people killed since the outbreak of the intifada in September.
The Palestinians say around 40 activists have been killed in direct attacks by Israel since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising.
Also, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed Monday for greater international assistance to support U.N. relief work in the occupied territories, according to the U.N. news service.
"[I]t is not possible to restore security and stability without a resumption of political activity leading towards a just settlement and of economic activity leading to an improvement of living conditions," the news service quoted him as saying in a new report.
"Development-oriented initiatives became extremely difficult to implement in the context of violence and lack of freedom of movement while, at the same time, the immediate needs on the ground called for a rapid response."
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