UN Mideast envoy stands by criticism of PA

Outgoing UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Monday that Palestinians are now embracing him for telling the truth after initially chastising and even banning him for publicly criticizing Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's failure to combat lawlessness.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Roed-Larsen said he stands by his scathing criticism of the PA, but urged Israel to return to negotiations to break the deadlocked peace process.

Roed-Larsen painted a grim picture of the situation inside the Palestinian territories before the UN Security Council in July, essentially blaming Arafat for growing corruption and lawlessness.

It was a stunning change of attitude by a man the Palestinians have long considered to be a good friend.

"Every Palestinian knows in his or her heart that everything I said in that statement to the Security Council in July was correct," Larsen said after presiding over a ceremony in Jerusalem marking United Nations Day.

"And now, and not to my surprise actually, I'm being embraced by Palestinians of all walks of life because of what I said."

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erakat concurred that the issue "is behind us" and that Palestinians "have a very good working relationship with Terje Roed-Larsen."

However, he said the Palestinians differ with Roed-Larsen over who's responsible for the breakdown of peace hopes, saying Israeli military operations - like one on Monday in Gaza's Khan Yunis refugee camp that killed at least 12 Palestinians - make it difficult for Palestinians to rein in chaos.

In a speech Monday, Roed-Larsen urged both Palestinians and Israelis to return to the road map peace plan that envisions a Palestinian state in areas evacuated by Israel.

In an interview in his office, the envoy, who will leave his position at the end of the year, said Israel's right to defend itself is "very clear" but that is no substitute for a peace process.

"Continued military action is not a good alternative to going back to the table and to sit with what remains of the Palestinian Authority and working hand in hand with the international community," Roed-Larsen said.

Hopes for peace in the 1990s collapsed four years ago with the outbreak of a second Palestinian intifada. Since then, violence has claimed some 3,200 Palestinian lives - including in the Israeli incursion on Monday launched to halt Palestinian mortar fire - and a thousand lives on the Israeli side.

Israel, accusing Arafat of abetting terror, refuses to negotiate with him or the Palestinian Authority. Instead, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is vowing to unilaterally disengage from the Palestinians, beginning with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements next year.

Sharon is expected to win a crucial parliamentary vote on the withdrawal on Tuesday, but will need a wide margin of victory to silence increasingly vociferous opposition.

Roed-Larsen said that "it will be extremely difficult if at all possible to carry through the disengagement" unless Israel talks to the Palestinians and allows the international community to participate in the process.

He warned of the dangers of a collapse of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip, where militants groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have increasingly flexed their political muscle despite a series of devastating Israeli blows to their capacity for violence.

"Not having an Authority there will lead to a rapid deepening of the chaos and anarchy and Gaza will not be capable of being a partner for anybody," he said.

Arafat has survived one cliffhanger after another in his three-and-a-half decades as Palestinian leader and his hold on the top job is not under threat.

But he now appears weaker than ever and his control of Palestinian territories is slipping. After Roed-Larsen dared say as much, both the Palestinian Authority and the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement, issued angry statement banning him from the Palestinian territories.

"Sometimes it's hard to face the truth," Roed-Larsen said of the Palestinian reaction.

But now, "I'm being welcomed everywhere in the streets and in the offices," he said. "Arafat called me a few weeks ago and spoke to me in the most amicable manner."