JERUSALEM – Furious Palestinians on Wednesday banned the U.N. peace envoy from the West Bank and Gaza Strip after he lashed out at Yasser Arafat in a statement to the Security Council.
A senior aide to the Palestinian leader described envoy Terje Roed-Larsen as “useless” and said he’s no longer welcome in the Palestinian areas.
Expressing frustration as he winds up his Mideast mission, Roed-Larsen blamed Arafat for lack of progress on vital reforms and peace moves backed by the world body. He spoke Tuesday before the U.N. Security Council.
Afterward, he denied he had changed his attitude toward Arafat, saying his report was balanced. “I am supposed to be the eyes and ears of the secretary-general on the ground,” he said, noting that he pressed Israel to pull out of the West Bank and Gaza and remove restrictions on Palestinians. Roed-Larsen was not available for comment on Wednesday.
A U.N. statement Wednesday said Secretary-General Kofi Annan “wishes to express his full support and confidence” in the envoy. The statement said Roed-Larsen’s intention was to convey concerns “regarding a lack of implementation by both parties” of their obligations under an international peace plan called the “road map.”
In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed surprise at the Palestinian action but declined further comment.
The Norwegian-born diplomat was a key player in setting up the secret Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that led to an interim peace accord in 1993.
A decade earlier, he set up the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, where he started a research project into the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Since taking up his U.N. peace post, Roed-Larsen has repeatedly criticized Israeli army closures and military incursions in Palestinian areas, angering Israeli officials.
In a visit to the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp in April 2003, after an intense Israeli offensive there, he described the scene as “horrifying beyond belief.” That led to an official Israeli boycott.
In an address to the Security Council on Tuesday, however, he had scathing words for Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.
“The Palestinian Authority, despite consistent promises by its leadership, has made no progress on its core obligation to take immediate action on the ground to end violence and combat terror, and to reform and reorganize the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
Roed-Larsen said the only explanation is “the lack of political will” to advance toward reform.
Criticizing Arafat directly, Roed-Larsen said that the Palestinian leader has “lent only nominal and partial support” to Egypt’s efforts to reform the Palestinian security services ahead of Israel’s planned Gaza Strip withdrawal.
Israel has kept Arafat confined to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah for more than two years, in what Roed-Larsen called “difficult conditions.”
“However, this is not an excuse for passivity and inaction,” Roed-Larsen added.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment on his remarks.
But Nabil Abu Rdeneh, Arafat’s top adviser, reacted angrily.
“We have demanded that Kofi Annan inquire about Roed-Larsen’s actions. The Palestinian government probably will act on the basis that (Roed-)Larsen is unwanted in the Palestinian territories,” Abu Rdeneh said.
A statement from the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah movement, called for a boycott against Roed-Larsen. “We do not give him permission to enter any Palestinian territory,” the statement said.
A member of Roed-Larsen’s Jerusalem staff said he was due to end his assignment at the end of this year, taking up a new job as president of the New York-based International Peace Academy.
Associated Press
U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen briefs Security Council members Tuesday at the United Nations.
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