Israel's U.N. ambassador, responding to criticism that his nation intended to kill Yasser Arafat, said it could have assassinated him at any time if it had wanted and called the Palestinian leader a founder of "mega-terror."

Dan Gillerman, Israeli ambassador to the U.N. addresses the Security Council open meeting on the Middle East, regarding the question of Palestine at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 15, 2003. [AP]

Israel's government last week resolved to "remove" Arafat from the scene one way or another, and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's said that killing Arafat was one option. The United States, European nations and Arab countries have denounced Israel's declaration.

"Had Israel wanted to kill Yasser Arafat, it could have done so 3,000 times," Israeli U.N. envoy Dan Gillerman told the Security Council on Monday as it considered a resolution demanding that Israel drop its threat to assassinate Arafat or expel him from his West Bank compound.

More than 40 countries spoke before the council, nearly all of them condemning Israel's threats against Arafat and also calling for an end to terrorist attacks.

Syria had intended to push a draft resolution to a quick vote, but was persuaded by other council members to amend it and send it to a vote, possibly Tuesday, said British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, serving as this month's president of the council.

A new draft being circulated to council members added stronger language condemning Israel's targeted assassinations of militant leaders and Palestinian suicide bombings, "all of which caused enormous suffering and many innocent victims."

The new language appeared aimed at providing more even-handedness in the resolution, to gain the support of Britain and Germany, and to assure that the United States would abstain rather than veto the resolution, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Gillerman denounced Arafat as a stumbling block to peace, accused him of inventing the modern concept of terrorism, and stopped just short of implicating him in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Arafat, he said, is among a select group of "terrorist entrepreneurs" that had devised airline hijackings, massacres of Olympic athletes, the killing of sleeping children, and suicide bombings.

"He is at the helm of those who have been supporting mega-terror attacks, in the style of the bombing of the twin towers, to bring the region to catastrophe," Gillerman said.

"Global indiscriminate terrorism is made by Arafat and invented by Arafat," he said.

Palestinian representative Nasser al-Kidwa told reporters that Gillerman's speech was "just trash," and denounced him for trying to exploit American sensitivity over the Sept. 11 attacks by trying to link Arafat to those al-Qaida hijackings.

Earlier, Al-Kidwa told the council that any attempt by Israel to kill or expel Arafat would be an "illegal and insane act" and would mean "an end of the Palestinian Authority and would signal an end of the peace process." He then stormed out when the Israeli representative began speaking.

The Palestinians are urging the Security Council to demand that Israel ensures Arafat's safety and prevents his deportation. Key council members are pushing both parties to implement the U.S.-backed peace plan known as the "road map."

Opening the council session, Terje Roed-Larsen, the chief U.N. envoy to the Middle East, said the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has stalled.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the council that "while all parties have responsibilities for bringing peace to the Middle East, ending terrorism must be the highest priority."

He specifically condemned Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, "which have openly claimed credit for scores of terrorist bombings," and said the United States would not support any resolution that did not condemn them and call for their dismantling. But he did not rule out a U.S. abstention.

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