The World - News from May 8, 1989

PLO leader Yasser Arafat denounced a call by an Iranian official to kill Westerners in retaliation for Palestinian deaths in the Israeli-occupied territories. “I reject this call in its totality,” Arafat told reporters at Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia. On Friday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani called for five Britons, French or Americans to be executed for every Palestinian killed in the Gaza Strip or West Bank by the Israeli army. The statement brought immediate condemnation from Washington, London and Paris as well as from other Palestinian leaders.