OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 26 September — Israel stood defiant yesterday against pressure from Washington to lift a siege of Yasser Arafat’s compound that could hurt US efforts to contain Middle East tensions ahead of possible war with Iraq. The hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government did not respond publicly to a US request to abide by a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to the six-day-old siege of the Palestinian president’s headquarters. But Israeli diplomatic sources said Israel had no intention of complying.
Asking Israel to heed the UN resolution, Washington called the Israeli operation in Ramallah "unhelpful" to international and internal efforts to persuade Arafat to carry out security and anti-corruption reforms in his Palestinian Authority. Israeli government sources said they believed the rare US criticism of Israel stemmed from White House concern the siege could stoke Middle East tensions and harm Washington’s bid to win Arab acquiescence in a military campaign against Iraq.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak left Riyadh late yesterday after a short visit focused on the Iraqi crisis and on the Israeli siege of Arafat’s headquarters. In talks with Prince Abdullah, the regent, the two men examined the "situation in the region and the precipitous events that could have negative results" throughout the Arab world, the state SPA news agency said.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said Israeli bulldozers destroyed three houses along a road leading to the Netzarim Jewish settlement. Israeli troops also demolished three houses belonging to Palestinian activists in the West Bank yesterday, witnesses said. A house belonging to Diab Schweiki of the Islamic Jihad group was wired with explosives and blown up on a hillside of the sprawling city of Hebron. Schweiki is wanted by Israel. The second house, south of Hebron in the village of Dura, belonged to Anis and Akram Namoura, two brothers imprisoned by Israel a year ago for carrying out attacks on Israelis. Palestinian sources said both served in Force 17, the personal bodyguard of President Yasser Arafat, and were members of his Fatah movement. A third house, belonging to Sheikh Abd Al-Khaliq Natshe, an official of Hamas, was destroyed in Hebron, witnesses said.
