The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, has "no right" to accept the latest US proposals for a peace deal with the Israelis, a leading conservative Iranian cleric said yesterday.
"Fortunately, negotiations have now reached a dead-end and terminated in crisis," Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Iran's former leading judge, said at weekly prayers at Tehran university.
"The plan is unacceptable to the Palestinians. It is their right to return to their homeland, and Arafat has no right to agree to the US suggestions," Ayatollah Yazdi said, cheered on by cries of "Death to America".
He dismissed the latest proposal put forward by President Clinton as "just like all the other offers they've made in the past - it is to the benefit of the Israelis".