Ariel Sharon, Israel’s former Defense Minister told a French newsmagazine that Israel’s “only mistake during its war in Lebanon had been to let Yasir Arafat come out alive.” Sharon, who now serves as Trade and Industry Minister, told the French weekly “V.S.D.” “Letting (Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir) Arafat leave Tripoli alive was a mistake that never should have happened.”
In an interview with the French weekly, Sharon said: “We had the opportunity to kill him in Beirut. We had pledged ourselves to let the PLO leave and we honored our promise. We had no such commitment in Tripoli and we should not have let him out of there alive.”
Arafat and his men were besieged by the Syrians in the northern Lebanese harbor of Tripoli and were evacuated by the French with Israel’s permission.
Sharon said Israel had achieved its main objectives in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and he blamed the Israeli Labor Party and the Israeli leftwing movements “for not having achieved even more.”
Turning to Israeli-Egyptian relations and President Hosni Mubarak’s recent peace initiative, Sharon said “There can be no serious negotiations as long as terrorism continues to exist.” He added “Any attempt to consider the PLO as a moderate movement is illogical and cannot be considered.”
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