WASHINGTON, May 19: Top US administration officials on Sunday conceded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could not control all sources of anti-Israeli attacks and called for maximum pressure on “state sponsors of terrorism”.

Asked to comment on Sunday’s attack that left two people dead and at least 40 injured in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya and on whether Arafat was in control of the situation in the Palestinian territories, Vice President Dick Cheney said he did not know who was behind the attack.

“There clearly is a class of bombings that he can’t (control), that relates to groups supported for example by Syria and Iran, the Hezbollah and Hamas factions that don’t come under his purview and that have in the past indicated they’re prepared to do everything they can to destroy the peace process,” the US vice president told NBC television.

“This morning I don’t know who is taking credit for this, what the origin of the attack was and whether or not he was in a position to be able to do anything about it,” Cheney said of the Netanya bombing.

The Hamas claimed responsibility for the Netanya bombing in an anonymous call.

US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice also conceded that Arafat could not be expected to halt all terror attacks against Israel.

“No one ever asked Yasser Arafat to get 100 percent results. What has been asked of him is 100 percent effort. And there is a lot that he does control, and there are some he controls simply by his authority with the Palestinian people,” she told CNN.

“It is true that there are external forces supporting terrorism in the Middle East — Iran, Syria,” she noted. “We, as an international community, need to put maximum pressure on state sponsors of terrorism like Iran and Syria,” she stressed.

“And the Iraqis paying 25,000 dollars to suicide bombers’ families and, therefore, inciting is really one of the grossest elements of this that one can imagine,” Rice said. “It’s amazing that this is not a source of more scorn in the Arab world.”

Rice also said no date has yet been set for a planned visit to the Middle East by CIA Director George Tenet to help reorganize the Palestinian security forces.

“The timing of that will depend on when it makes sense for him to do that,” she said. “We’re looking at several possibilities. But the key is going to be to reorganize the Palestinian security operation around some general principles: accountability — accountability comes from a more unified command.”

Last week Arafat called for a complete overhaul of his Palestinian Authority and reiterated calls for an end to attacks on Israeli civilians.—AFP