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Arafat rejects Zinni ceasefire proposals

CAIRO, April 11 (UPI) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has rejected proposals for a cease-fire made by U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni, a senior Palestinian official said in Cairo Thursday.

Arafat rejected the proposals submitted to him in his besieged and battered headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank, Nabil Shaath told reporters.

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Shaath, who is Minister for Planning and International Cooperation in the Palestinian Authority, said Zinni's proposals gave Israel the right, if it felt threatened, to re-occupy Palestinian territory and to strike at Palestinian security headquarters and at Arafat's headquarters. In the proposal, Israel alone was given the right to define and anticipate a potential danger, he said.

Shaath noted that Zinni's proposals, unlike the plan produced last year by CIA director George Tenet, did not include a timetable for Israel's withdrawal from Palestinian territories. It also gave Israel the right to ask the Palestinian Authority to arrest whomever it wants.

Leaders of Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Egypt have asked U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell not to bring the Zinni proposals to Arafat but instead to seek a political solution that requires Israel's withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

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Shaath also appealed to Arab countries for financial assistance promised at an Arab summit meeting in Beirut last month.

"All Arab countries should act like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which have already paid their shares of financial help to the Palestinians," Shaath said. Saudi Arabia allocated an estimated $15.4 million; Kuwait paid an estimated $7.5 million.

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