(Baltimore Sun) - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told foreign diplomats on Wednesday that Israel cannot yet implement UN resolution 1435 calling for an immediate halt to its siege of Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters. "While I am speaking before you we have warnings of another and another attempt to infiltrate into Israel suicide bombers. It is our duty as a government to prevent it. Somebody has to (be) responsible for the security in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," he said. Peres telephoned his Japanese counterpart Yoriko Kawaguchi to say that Israel would like to implement Tuesday's resolution, but that the daily security threats and the Palestinian Authority's failure to stop the bombers made it impossible at present, Israeli public radio said. When asked by journalists how Israel could continue to demand the Palestinians carry out the promised reforms while putting most of the West Bank under siege, Peres said there was no link between the two. The Palestinian Authority had agreed to carry out reforms and now it had to realize them, he said. (AFP/iafrica.com) Foreign Minister Peres told European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana this week: "We cannot tolerate a situation in which anyone can come and kill us. This [siege] is taking place because the Palestinians lack anyone taking responsibility for eliminating acts of terror."
2002-09-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive