WASHINGTON, Jan 27: Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday for the first time directly implicated Yasser Arafat in a recent arms smuggling incident linked to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerilla group and questioned the Palestinian leader’s commitment to peace.

“We’ve just seen evidence that he was involved in this Karine A shipment,” Cheney told ABC television, referring the 50 tonnes of arms Israel seized from the freighter in international waters of the Red Sea on Jan 3.

Asked about Arafat’s denial of his involvement in a letter to President George W. Bush, Cheney said: “We don’t believe him.”

US officials had until now said Palestinian Authority officials were involved in the smuggling attempt but Cheney’s comments marked the first time Arafat himself was implicated.

“He has been implicated now in an operation that puts him working with a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, and Iran, a state that’s devoted to torpedoing the peace process,” the vice president added. Both the Palestinian Authority and Iran have denied any knowledge of the shipment.

On Sunday’s suicide attack by a Palestinian woman that killed one Israeli and injuring dozens in the heart of Jerusalem, Cheney said: “We’re not going to get a handle on the peace process until somebody gets control of those terrorist activities, and that’s Yasser Arafat’s responsibility. He has not fulfilled those responsibilities.”

“We’ve been deeply disappointed by his inability or his unwillingness to control the terrorist threat launched from Palestine against Israeli civilians,” he told ABC, echoing the frustration expressed by President George W. Bush last week.—AFP