LEBANON: SYRIAN MINISTER CRITICISES ARAFAT

(3 Aug 1999) Arabic/Nat

Syrian Defence Minister, Mustafa Tlass, has launched a verbal attack on Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, about what he says is Arafat's failure to maintain Palestinian rights over Jerusalem.

Meanwhile Arafat's advisers demanded Tuesday that Syrian President Hafez Assad fire his Defence Minister, who reportedly referred to the Palestinian leader in a speech as a "son of 60,000 whores."

Mustafa Tlass has acknowledged that he criticised Arafat in a speech in Lebanon but denies using insulting language.

The Syrian Defence Minister, Mustafa Tlass, in a speech marking army day in the Lebanese town of Baalbek, said Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, had been meek on the issue of Jerusalem.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"We never abandoned Palestine but Yasser Arafat is the one who abandoned Palestine and he was the coward. When he was in the White House he should have said that Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian."
SUPERCAPTION: Mustafa Tlass, Syrian Defence Minister

Newspaper reports said Tlass also referred to Arafat as a "son of 60,000 whores" and likened the Palestinian leader's concessions to Israel to an ugly striptease.

The alleged verbal attack by Tlass runs counter to recent signs of an improvement in relations between Syria and the Palestinian leader.

Last week, the nephew of President Hafez al-Assad, Sumer al-Assad, met Arafat in Gaza.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"Israel throws test balloons saying (Lebanon first) but they actually mean that Lebanon should be the first to sign. But Syrian and Lebanese tracks are unified and that will not change. The great powers in the world build policies according to Israeli interests."
SUPERCAPTION: Mustafa Tlass, Syrian Defence Minister

Tlass continued his speech by saying that the Palestinians had sold out the Jerusalem and Arab nations by poor negotiations in Oslo.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"They want Wye River to be implemented. The Wye River agreement means that the Palestinians should be given 10 percent of the West Bank lands and this whole Palestinian dream is now only represented in 10 percent of the West Bank despite all that the Israeli leaders are playing hard on them because the Palestinians sold Jerusalem and the Arab nations all in Oslo."
SUPERCAPTION: Mustafa Tlass, Syrian Defence Minister

On Sunday, Arafat held a reconciliation meeting in Cairo with top officials of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which opposes the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace deal.

Tension and hostility have characterised Arafat's relationship with the Syrian leadership over the years.

Several showdowns took place between Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization and the Syrian army during the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.

Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon.

The Syrians also remain angry at Arafat for negotiating separate interim peace agreements with Israel, without coordinating with Damascus.

Last month, when Arafat, with Egyptian help, tried to arrange an Arab summit to coordinate positions ahead of peace negotiations with Israel's new government, Syria torpedoed the idea.

There have also been increasing expectations that peace
negotiations could resume shortly between Syria and Israel after the
coming to power last month of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

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