Israeli pressures to force Arafat, one way ticket out of the Palestinian territories

The British daily The Guardian expected in its Monday's issue that the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat who is besieged in Ramullah is expected to leave without a return out of the Palestinian territories, as desired by the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

The British paper indicated that the Israeli officials stress that Sharon who is persistent to have Arafat leave from the area, is waiting a telephone call from a third party like France or a European state informing him that Arafat has taken his decision to evacuate without a return, expecting France to ask Sharon to permit Arafat to leave for medical treatment in Paris where his wife currently lives.

The British daily indicated that the current confrontation between Arafat and Sharon has been changed into personal confrontation of a long history, recalling that Arafat was forced to quite Beirut to Tunisia at the hands of Sharon 20 years ago.

The Guardian commented that Sharon thinks that permitting Arafat to return back to the Palestinian territories according to the Oslo agreement was a deadly mistake committed by Israel and that he ( Sharon) wants to get Arafat back to exile once again.