Europe delays peace by aiding Arafat: Sharon

Sharon, who will meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday and fly to Norway Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, told the Norwegian daily Aftenposten that European nations should isolate Arafat.

"Europe is maintaining contact with Yasser Arafat, meeting him, ringing him, and in this way is delaying a solution to the problems here in the Middle East," Sharon said.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

"I think there should be a joint effort to remove him from all posts," he added, accusing Arafat of trying to prevent Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate and a reformer, from working for peace.

Israeli diplomatic sources said Saturday that Israel could deport Arafat if it judges he is holding up Abbas' bid to implement a U.S.-backed "road map" to Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

Washington has sidelined Arafat, accusing him of fostering violence. Arafat denies the charge. Sharon said that Arafat, although elected, had "adopted the strategy of terror."

Sharon did not single out European nations for criticism and said that he viewed Norway as a "friend and a supporter." Bondevik, a centrist Christian Democrat, is a priest who once said he was a "friend of Israel."

A former Labor government in Norway hosted secret talks between Israelis and Palestinians in 1993 that led to the now-collapsed Oslo peace accords.

Meanwhile, Israel could deport or arrest Palestinian President Yasser Arafat if he holds up his prime minister's efforts to implement a US-backed "road map" to Middle East peace, Israeli diplomatic sources said Saturday.