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SV SCU PLO Chairman, Yasser Arafat, addressing crowd in Beirut
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SV Crowd applauding
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Mr. Arafat's warning is the first direct Palestinian response to a recent statement by U.S. Defence Secretary Horold Brown that America was prepared to use military force to protect its vital interests in areas such as the Gulf.




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Background: Palestine Liberation Organisation Chairman, Yasser Arafat, issued a warning on Sunday (5 Augusts) to the United States Navy not to try and take over Middle East oilfields. Speaking in Beirut, Mr. Arafat said the Palestinians were ready to confront any American invasion force in the area.

SYNOPSIS; Mr. Arafat was speaking to an audience at beirut Arab University at a special ceremony to mark the death of French-based PLO agent, Zuheir Mohsen -- gunned down last month (July 25) in Cannes. Mr. Mohsen's killers have not yet been traced, but Mr. Arafat accused t he countries participating in the Camp David agreement of having mastermind??? his assassination.

He promised Palestinian revenge for the killing, declaring that the use of violence was not "one-way traffic.". Mr. Arafat then went on to deliver a direct warning to the United States. He said the Palestinian resistance fighters would not let a single American set foot in the Middle East. The land, he said, was Arab-owned, and so was the oil in it.

Although America had allies in Egypt and Israel -- said Mr. Arafat -- Palestine too, had allies among the socialist and non-aligned countries, as well as in African and Islamic states.