Arafat, in London, Backs War on Terror

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat on Monday positioned himself as a key ally in the fight against Osama bin Laden’s terror network and received strong support from British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the creation of a Palestinian state.

After a high-profile meeting at 10 Downing St., Arafat echoed Blair’s oft-stated assertion that the United States and Britain are not engaged in a war against Islam. He also rejected Bin Laden’s claim to be championing the cause of the Palestinian people.

“Fighting terror is not a war against Arabs or Muslims or Islam,” Arafat said. “Our Palestinian cause is a just cause. . . . There can be no mix between our just cause and the methods and objectives that are unjust, the terrorist acts and the killing of civilians like what happened in the United States.”

Blair, in turn, called for the urgent resumption of Middle East peace negotiations.

“A viable Palestinian state, as part of a negotiated and agreed settlement which guarantees peace and security for Israel, is the objective,” Blair said at a joint news conference.

“The end we desire . . . is a just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side, each in their own state, secure and able to prosper and develop,” he said.

Later Monday, Blair spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The leaders agreed to meet early next month in London.

The United States and Britain have become convinced that progress toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians is vital to maintaining the support of Muslim and Arab countries for the war against Bin Laden and his hosts, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network is believed to be responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. In a video broadcast after U.S.-led airstrikes began in Afghanistan last week, the Saudi militant claimed to be fighting in part for the Palestinian cause. He warned Americans that their country “will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine and before all the army of infidels departs the land of Muhammad,” a reference to U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.

While most Arabs and Muslims condemn the attacks that killed about 5,600 people--many Muslims among them--there is widespread support for a Palestinian state.

Arafat has been quick to seize the moment. His forces cracked down on a demonstration held in support of Bin Laden last week. And after Saudi Arabia reportedly refused to receive Blair during a tour of the Middle East last week, Arafat arranged a trip to London. On Western soil, he made a strong and unequivocal statement in support of the West.

Blair responded in kind with backing for a “viable” Palestinian state, a word that to the Palestinians means taking possession of additional and connected land, rather than the islands that now make up their territory.

Blair offered no specifics for solving the deadlock after a yearlong Palestinian uprising, a campaign against Israel--and the Israeli military’s heavy-handed response--that has included suicide bombings. But analysts here believe that Blair was also speaking on behalf of the United States and that a full-blown initiative could be unveiled at the United Nations General Assembly next month.

President Bush told reporters Oct. 2 that he supports the idea of an independent state for Palestinians but that there must first be an end to violence in the region.

Arafat, standing beside Blair, called on Sharon to resume negotiations over the key issues of the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.

In Slovakia, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said his government supports the creation of a Palestinian state but that the Palestinians had rejected the offer made at talks last year.

“I think President Bush and Prime Minister Blair have to convince Mr. Arafat,” Peres told a news conference in Bratislava, the Slovakian capital. “We offered him a Palestinian state and most of the land, and we can hardly understand why he rejected this.”

Blair and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw denied that Britain and the U.S. were warming to Palestinian statehood as part of an effort to win support for fighting Bin Laden.

“Everybody knows that there is absolutely no justification whatever for what happened on Sept. 11, but people also understand--and it is a point understood by people inside the Israeli Cabinet as well--that at the same time, we have got to reduce the tensions within which terrorism breeds and terrorism can hide,” Straw said in an interview on BBC radio.

He noted that Britain’s support for a Palestinian state preceded Sept. 11.

But not all Palestinians were convinced.

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based newspaper Al Quds al Arabi, wrote Monday that the Bush administration’s mention of a Palestinian state and Blair’s invitation to Arafat were part of a hearts-and-minds campaign.

“It is as if [they think] the Arab nation . . . can be fooled,” Atwan wrote.