Sharon: Arafat is to blame for Mideast violence

Ariel Sharon

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Ariel Sharon, Israel's hawkish opposition party leader, told CNN on Tuesday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was the "only one responsible" for six days of deadly clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians.

"We are really very sorry for every casualty but the one who is responsible for that directly is Arafat," Sharon said. "There is no reason to blame anybody else."

Sharon, a former defense minister, denied that his controversial trip to a disputed Jerusalem shrine on Thursday had set off the violence, which has claimed at least 51 lives. Instead, Sharon said, the violence was "preplanned and orchestrated" by the Palestinians and actually began 10 days earlier.

VIDEO Sharon responds to criticism he triggered the unrest (October 3) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"It did not start on the day that I visited the holiest place for the Jewish people," he said. "It started about 10 days earlier. They already had casualties then."

Sharon may have been referring to a September 17 attack near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank by about 50 Palestinian schoolchildren, aged 10 to 13.

The children pelted Israeli troops and police with stones and empty bottles at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip. Police responded with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Five children and one Israeli border policeman were injured.

The shrines in east Jerusalem's Old City -- on a site called Temple Mount by Jews and Haram as-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary by Muslims -- are among the holiest for two major religions. The hill is the site of the only remaining stretch of wall from the Jewish Temple, destroyed two millennia ago, and two mosques -- Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock -- which mark the spot where tradition holds that Islam's Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.

Sharon, who said he went to the site even though the Palestinians had planned violence because he had a right to do so, reiterated Israel's demands that it have sole control of an undivided Jerusalem "to insure free access to everybody."

CNN Anchor Leon Harris, CNN International Anchor Ralitsa Vassileva and CNN.com Senior Writer KC Wildmoon contributed to this report.

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