Arafat: Settling Palestinians outside their state is a crime

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said that talk of settling the Palestinian refugees outside their country is a crime, as it is the right of the Palestinians wherever they are to return to their nation and the right of the established Palestinian state to receive its people.

In statements to the Lebanese newspaper al-Nahar, Arafat expressed his astonishment towards the raising of the refugees issue only in Lebanon, although there are Palestinian refugees in several Arab states, as well as in Europe and the USA.