JERUSALEM, Sept 14 (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted Tuesday Yasser Arafat would be expelled from the West Bank, adding that the Palestinian leader would be dealt with in the same way as two assassinated heads of Hamas.
In an interview with the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper published a year after his security cabinet approved the principle of Arafat's "removal", Sharon insisted that his arch enemy would be banished "at a time that suits us".
"Arafat will be expelled from the territories," Sharon told the paper.
"We took action against Ahmed Yassin and (Abdelaziz) Rantissi and a few other murderers when we thought the time was right. On the matter of Arafat's expulsion we will operate in keeping with that same principle: we'll do it at a time that suits us."
Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Islamist movement Hamas, was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in March. His successor Rantissi was killed in a similar operation less than a month later.
Asked if he saw any difference between the three men, Sharon replied: "I don't see any difference.
"He, he and he adopted a policy of murder. The way we've dealt with other murderers is the way we'll deal with Arafat."
Arafat has been effectively confined to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah since December 2001, having been dismissed as an absolute obstacle to peace by Sharon.
Sharon has made a number of previous threats against Arafat's life but any move to either expel or assassinate the Palestinian leader would be fiercely opposed by Washington.
His Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said last week that Arafat's expulsion had "never been closer."
However Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said that the threats were being taken seriously, likening Sharon and his cabinet to the mafia.
"These kind of threats are very serious and are preparing the ground for a physical attack on president Arafat," Erakat told AFP.
"We are holding Israel entirely responsible for these threats and warn them not to carry them out," he added.
Sharon's pledge to expel Arafat was ironically published hours after his own son Omri, who is an MP for the right-wing Likud party, said that such a move would be counter-productive.
"The expulsion of Arafat is neither feasible nor in the interests of Israel," Omri Sharon told party activists.