Arab League discusses Israel 's threats against Arafat

The secretary general of the Arab League AL Amr Moussa has announced that the AL will hold an emergency meeting today ( Monday) to discuss the Israeli threats to expelling the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Moussa explained that the meeting will be held at the level of permanent representatives of the AL member states, at a Palestinian request, noting that he telephoned Arafat yesterday for consultations with him.

This came after it was disclosed that Israel does not rule out to killing Arafat.

The US secretary of state Colin Powell rejected this option. In an interview with an American TV station in Baghdad that the implementation of this measure might be conducive to blowing up anger in the region.

Powell's reply came after the Israeli deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert said that killing Arafat is an option before his government in the framework of its attempt to eliminate what he described as the spearheads of terrorism and provokers for it, adding that "Arafat is one of spearheads of terrorism."

Olmert's statements, who is an extremist rightist, coincide with what was stated by the Israeli Maareve daily that the chairman of the Israeli internal security department ( Shein Beit ) said in internal debates that "killing Arafat is better that expelling him."