Journalist Morgan Strong first went to speak with Yasir Arafat for a Playboy Interview in the September 1988 issue. He met with Arafat in Tunisia and then in Baghdad, after spending six months following the elusive leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization through various exotic ports of call.

Arafat was always on the move then, with reason. He and his troops had been forced to abandon their base in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion.

Strong and Arafat eventually met in Arafat's Tunis headquarters in late 1987. He was perhaps the world's most notorious outlaw at that time.

Now Arafat is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and has been a guest at the White House. The signing of the Peace Accords on the White House lawn in 1993 was a historic event.

Strong reports: "Arafat's aides tell me that in some small measure PLAYBOY was responsible for the accords. They insist that the breakthrough Playboy Interview with the 'Old Man,' as he is referred to by his cohorts, caught the attention of the Reagan administration and led to the beginning of talks between the PLO and the American government in Tunisia.

"It caught Israel's attention as well. The entire interview was reprinted in Ha'aretz, Israel's leading newspaper, and caused enormous--and positive--public reaction.

"Arafat has endured and may finally triumph. After decades of terror and counter-terror, there appears to be a glimmer of hope, despite the fact that Israeli and Palestinian extremists have tried desperately to derail the peace process.

"In many ways the current peace has become more trying than the years of war, and desperation is evident in Arafat's demeanor. Once a vigorous and tireless man, he now seems drained and exhausted.

"Arafat faces deliberate resistance to the peace process and has an exasperating opponent in Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as in Netanyahu's cabinet member Ariel Sharon, who tried to kill Arafat."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: The last time that we spoke at length was in Baghdad nearly a decade ago. Has a lot changed in the Middle East since then?

Yasir Arafat: No, not really, just that we're meeting in Jericho now. [Laughs]

Q 2

PLAYBOY: But you've won a Nobel Prize and are closer to the realization of your dream of a Palestinian state. You once told us you would never see that come to pass.

Yasir Arafat: I meant I personally might never see it.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: What do you mean?

Yasir Arafat: You know they have tried to kill me. Thirteen times at least. Ariel Sharon tried to kill me.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Why would they want to assassinate you now?

Yasir Arafat: To stop the peace process. That's why they killed my partner Yitzhak Rabin.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: But you sit at the same negotiating table now with Ariel Sharon.

Yasir Arafat: Yes, but we are separated by a table. [Laughs] I don't talk to him. I have never talked to him.