Sharon: No Promise To Spare Arafat

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that he is no longer bound by a promise to the United States not to harm Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In a television interview broadcast Friday, Sharon said he told U.S. President Bush about the change in his position last week in Washington.

"I told the president the following," Sharon said. "In our first meeting about three years ago, I accepted your request not to harm Arafat physically. I told him I understand the problems surrounding the situation, but I am released from that pledge."

He declined to say how Mr. Bush reacted. During Sharon's Washington visit, Mr. Bush backed a plan under which Israel would withdraw from all its settlements in the Gaza Strip but only some in the West Bank. The U.S. move has stirred Arab anger, and even spurred protests from moderate states — and U.S. allies — Egypt and Jordan.

Sharon and other Israeli officials have been hinting for months that he may move against Arafat.

Sharon's comments Monday came after Israel assassinated two leaders of Hamas: Sheik Ahmed Yassin in March and Abdel Aziz Rantisi on Saturday.

After the killing of Yassin, Israel's army chief suggested that Arafat and the chief of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, would eventually be assassinated by Israel.

"I think that their responses yesterday show that they understand that it is nearing them," Moshe Yaalon said when asked if the two men were in Israel's crosshairs.

In early April, asked by the newspaper Haaretz whether Arafat and Nasrallah are targets for assassination, Sharon said: "I wouldn't suggest that either of them feel immune … Anyone who kills a Jew or harms an Israeli citizen, or sends people to kill Jews, is a marked man. Period."

Sharon told the newspaper Maariv that Arafat "has no insurance policy." Sharon added that "today, everyone knows Arafat is the obstacle (blocking) any progress."

In September, Israel's Cabinet decided that Arafat should be "removed" - an intentionally vague statement that could mean he would be expelled or killed. However, Israel has not acted on the threat.

Sharon has repeatedly accused Arafat of involvement in attacks on Israelis, saying he encourages and finances militants. Militants have killed more than 900 Israelis during three and a half years of fighting.

Israel has killed scores of militants in targeted attacks. However, under U.S. pressure, it has refrained from killing or expelling Arafat.

Palestinian officials have expressed concern that Israel might attack Arafat, especially following the killings of the Hamas leaders in recent months. On Thursday, Arafat expelled 20 militants who had sought shelter at his West Bank headquarters, fearing an Israeli attack was imminent.

Israeli troops killed four Palestinians, one of them armed, in arrest raids in the West Bank on Friday, the army said, as Israel's vice premier warned of dire consequences for the country if the ruling Likud party rejects the plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

"There will be dire consequences for the state of Israel, politically, security-wise and economically, this I have no doubt about," Vice Premier Ehud Olmert told Israel Radio.

The gap is narrowing in an upcoming referendum on the plan, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. Sharon's hawkish Likud party will hold a referendum on the Gaza withdrawal plan on May 2, and the latest poll shows 49 percent supporting it with 39 percent opposed.

What's significant, reports Berger, is that 9 percent of the voters said they changed their minds in recent days and decide to vote against the plan. Whatever the outcome, Sharon's decision to dismantle 21 Gaza settlements has left Israel's biggest political party deeply divided.

Sharon initially said the May 2 vote among 200,000 party members would be binding, but has since backtracked, saying it would not have legal weight.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops searching for Palestinian militants raided the town of Qalqiliya and a village near the town of Nablus.

In the village of Talouza, troops backed by a helicopter gunship came to arrest four wanted militants, the army said. Two of the wanted men opened fire, drawing return fire that killed one man and wounded another. Palestinians said the man killed in the incident was a bystander.

Also Friday, Jerusalem police barred Muslim men under the age of 45 from attending prayers at a disputed holy site after receiving warnings that youths planned to riot.

The Al Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been a frequent flashpoint since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000.

The sponsors of the road map to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians will meet in New York on May 4 to try to give new impetus to the stalled plan, the European Union's foreign policy chief said Thursday.

The road map drafted by the so-called Quartet — the EU, the United States, the United Nations and Russia — has been sidelined by Israel's unilateral decision to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim is a move to redraw borders.