Arafat's Legacy Is Palestinians' Acceptance Of Principle Of Coexistence With Israel -- Annan
Reacting to the death of President Yasser Arafat, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said President
Arafat will always be remembered for having led the Palestinians, back in 1988, to accept the principle of peaceful
coexistence between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
"By signing the Oslo accords in 1993 he took a giant step towards the realization of this vision," a spokesman for Mr.
Annan said in a statement issued in New York. "It is tragic that he did not live to see it fulfilled." "Now that he has
gone, both Israelis and Palestinians, and the friends of both peoples throughout the world, must make even greater
efforts to bring about the peaceful realization of the Palestinian right of self-determination," the statement said.
"Deeply moved" by the news of the Palestinian leader's death, the Secretary-General conveyed his condolences to
President Arafat's wife Suha and his young daughter Zahwa, and to the Palestinian people.
For nearly four decades, the statement stressed, President Arafat had "expressed and symbolized in his person the
national aspirations of the Palestinian people."