Envoys finalise Arafat deal

British and American diplomats were today putting the finishing touches to a deal with Israel to secure the release of Yasser Arafat from his Ramallah offices in return for acting as jailers to six Palestinian militants.

As the six men are taken to a Jericho prison to be guarded by an Anglo-American team of monitors, Mr Arafat will take the opportunity to emerge from the squalor of his offices, where 300 people have been sharing three toilets, to celebrate his "triumph". It will be short lived, however.

Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, is also trying to paint the last month's massive military operations on the West Bank as a victory.

He has delighted the Israeli Right by completing the reoccupation of the West Bank with the take over of Hebron, and by smashing Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

He has also boasted to have crippled terror groups by killing or arresting their most senior organisers and bombmakers.

The blood letting of the last month cannot be seen as a victory for either of the two old enemies who continue to apply parochial solutions to a Middle East conflict with global implications.

Israel is no more secure than it was a month ago, the Palestinians are further than ever from an independent state, and the rest of the world continues to face extremist Islamic terror groups rallying beneath the banner of Jerusalem's al Aqsa Mosque and its golden Dome.

Although Mr Arafat, 74, still embodies, for most Palestinians, the national struggle for an independent homeland - genuine support for his policies has eroded to almost nil.

"Why should we support this man? Before the Intifada his administration was incompetent and corrupt. It also had no respect for any opposition, and none for human rights. Now he is just a figure head, " said Mohammed in the West Bank village of Halhul. Mohammed, 56, did not want to give his full name for fear of retribution.