Arab response after the incident (2004)

Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council denounced the assassination, linking it to the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. Council member Muwaffaq al-Rubaiyi told AFP news agency: "We condemn the killing, which will only serve to strengthen the justification for terrorist acts in the world and does not serve peace."

In Kuwait, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said: "Violence will increase now because violence always breeds violence."  The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Muhammad Akif, described Yassin as a "martyr" and his assassination a ''cowardly operation."

In an interview with Aljazeera, Sudan's Islamic leader, Hasan al-Turabi, said the killing of Yassin will "put pressure on the Arab governments that have so far let down the Palestinian cause."

Meanwhile, Jordanian King Abed Allah II described Israel's killing as a "crime". 

Lebanon's president Emile Lahud vehemently denounced the Zionist act. "Israel has committed a crime but will not succeed in liquidating the Palestinian cause, for the resistance is going to increase."

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Hizb Allah resistance movement, Shaikh Muhammad Husayn Fadl Allah, accused US president George Bush of complicity.

"Bush is a killer in the manner of Ariel Sharon. It is he who gave the green light to the Zionist criminals for them to carry out their acts of liquidations and their war of extermination of the Palestinian people."

 International response

The United States responded in much more muted terms with a state department spokesman urging "all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint". British foreign secretary Jack Straw led the international condemnation of the killing of Yassin, saying: "It is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objective."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stated: "This is very, very bad news for the peace process. The policy of the European Union has been to consistently condemn extra-judicial killing." Echoing his comments, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said: "Such acts can only feed the spiral of violence."

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Yakovenko, commented: "Moscow is deeply concerned about the situation. It threatens a new wave of violence, which could sabotage efforts to restart negotiations between the Palestinians and Zionists by the 'quartet' of international mediators and key regional powers."

Iran on the other hand described the killing as a "criminal act".  The Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said, Yassin's murder was a "further example of the Zionist regime's barbarity," warning, Israel it "will plunge further into the crisis it brought upon itself."

Yassin in his own words

Aljazeera had met with Yassin on several occasions. During these interviews, the Palestinian leader highlighted his movement's position on the Arab-Zionist conflict, the peace process and resistance.

This is a selection of some of these quotations:

"The Oslo accord, as we see it, is an unjust and a bad agreement that will not fulfill our people's aspirations and goals. "In my view, [the Oslo Accords] sowed the seeds of disunity among the Palestinian people and aimed at halting the Intifada against the Zionist army.

"The agreement has fulfilled no goals. What was implemented of it was too little to meet our aspirations, which made this agreement null and void. No Palestinian was convinced that this path will lead to peace, secure Palestinian territories or establish a Palestinian state.

"What I believe is that the Palestinian Authority has no option but to go back to the path of resistance, unify the ranks of the Palestinian people in the face of the Zionist occupation. Up to the moment, the position of Hamas is that jihad is a strategic option that we will not deviate from, unless Israel agrees to a truce.

"As I see it, Israel was founded on oppression and the confiscation of land. Any entity which is based on oppression and land grabs is doomed for disintegration." If I am killed there will arise a thousand like me. They [the Zionists] should know that the battle will continue and that our people will hold them to account and make them pay the price of their crimes.

I believe our predicament is tough and calls for sacrifices and patience. But the future is on our side, God willing