RAMALLAH, July 14: The top UN envoy to the Middle East is no longer welcome in the Palestinian territories after he harshly criticized Yasser Arafat, a senior adviser to the Palestinian president said on Wednesday.
"Terje Roed-Larsen's statement is not objective. As of today he is an unwelcome person in Palestinian territories," Nabil Abu Rdainah said, referring to the envoy's latest monthly briefing to the UN Security Council, given on Tuesday.
Mr Roed-Larsen's office said he had not met Yasser Arafat for the past year but did not say why and had no other immediate comment. Mr Roed-Larsen accused Mr Arafat of giving "only nominal and partial support" to Egyptian efforts to support Palestinian security reforms demanded by the international community in an effort to end almost four years of violence.
While Mr Arafat remained confined to his West Bank headquarters under virtual house arrest, surrounded by Israeli forces, Mr Roed-Larsen said "this is not an excuse for passivity and inaction".
He also criticized Israel, accusing the Jewish state of making "no progress" on international demands that it dismantle settlements built on Palestinian land since March 2001, and move toward a total freeze of settlement activities.
Mr Roed-Larsen is a Middle East veteran who as a Norwegian diplomat played a central role in conceiving the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords under which Israel gave Palestinians limited self-rule in territories it occupied in the 1967 war. The Oslo agreement has been shredded since 2000 by fighting that broke out after talks on Palestinian statehood foundered.
ANNAN BACKS LARSEN: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan issued a statement backing Mr Roed-Larsen, saying he had expressed international concern "regarding a lack of implementation" by both Israel and the Palestinians of the roadmap introduced last year.
The statement said that the Quartet - comprising the UN, United States, European Union and Russia - feel both parties "must return to the negotiating table", that the Palestinians should fully empower their prime minister and Israel should dismantle settlement outposts.
In the past Roed-Larsen has drawn harsher criticism from Israelis than Palestinians to the point where Israel's government has boycotted him since 2002 over his continued dealings with Mr Arafat and his closest ministers.
"Perhaps as a result of this (Palestinian rejection), Roed-Larsen will become more welcome in Israel again. It's possible contacts with him could resume," a senior Israeli political source said.
Palestinian UN observer Nasser al Kidwa slammed Roed-Larsen's Security Council statement. "It is strange for him to play the role of the cheerleader, basically, of Mr Sharon," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Terje Roed-Larsen's broadside reflected growing international impatience with the 75-year-old Arafat. He spoke of a paralysed Palestinian Authority on the verge of collapse amid crumbling law and order and said the problems could not be blamed only on Israeli army raids.
Reforms were crucial to restore law and order and the credibility abroad of the self-rule Authority, he said. Frustration with Mr Arafat burst into the open after a meeting of Quartet envoys with Palestinian officials last week, with one senior diplomat warning that Palestinians would lose financial aid without reforms. -Reuters