Palestinians Seethe, Threaten

Tue, Mar 30, 2004 at 8:17:22 am PST

More threats against the US from the Palestinian death cult: Palestinians Back Down From U.S. Threats.

The American diplomatic delegation is scheduled to arrive in the region Wednesday to hear more about the withdrawal plan. U.S. officials said Monday they refuse to support the plan for now but would consider changing their minds after more talks with Israeli and Arab officials.

The team consists of Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, National Security Council Deputy Director Stephen J. Hadley and the council’s Mideast specialist, Elliott Abrams. It is their third trip to the area since February.

In Gaza, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — a violent group linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction — issued a statement saying the delegation was banned from Palestinian areas. It also accused America of unfairly preventing the U.N. Security Council from condemning Israel’s assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin last week.

“This visit is rejected completely, and the American administration will not like the circumstances of such a visit,” it said.

Hours later, however, Al Aqsa leaders softened the statement, saying there were no plans to harm the diplomats.

“We will not use force against the Americans because we don’t want one more enemy. We have one enemy and that’s enough,” said Abu Qusay, an Al Aqsa leader in Gaza.

However, he said the Americans still were unwelcome in the Palestinian areas and the group would call for anti-American demonstrations and boycotts of American goods.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said he did not believe the American delegation planned to enter the West Bank or Gaza, but “clearly our security people will be interested in this (threat).”