The Portuguese Communist Party vehemently condemns and repudiates the irresponsible and provocative statements by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, in which he regrets not having "liquidated" the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, during the 1982 war in Lebanon.

These statements reveal, once again, the true nature of Ariel Sharon, well known for his responsibilities in the massacres of thousands of Palestinians. They are yet another sign of the Israeli government's current strategy, which, ever more clearly supported by the US Administration, is carrying out a terrorist policy against the Palestinian population and its legitimate representatives, including Yasser Arafat. It is this policy that is at the root of the dangerous ongoing escalation of the situation.

This policy has been evident in the recent actions of a military and political nature, whose ultimate goal is the annexation of the territories that are currently under Palestinian administration, and the extermination by force of the Palestinian resistance and of the Intifada.

Recalling that it is the Israeli Government that has so far refused to respect all the agreements it signed with the Palestinian Authority, that it is the Israeli Government which refuses to accept all UN Resolutions that guarantee the Palestinian national rights (namely, Resolutions 242 and 338), and that it is the Israeli Government that continues to daily violate the cease-fire agreed with the Palestinian Authority (examples of which are the actions undertaken on the 30th of last month against Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Qalqilia and the Gaza Strip), the PCP demands that the Portuguese Government take a clear stand condemning Ariel Sharon's recent statements and distancing itself from Israel's policy against the Palestinian State and people, which can only be considered as State terrorism.