Yasser Arafat Agrees To Summit
(this is now positive development and if they at least make some progress over the weekend the market will like it )
Updated 5:58 AM ET October 14, 2000
By DAFNA LINZER, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed Saturday to attend a
summit aimed at ending the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, apparently
dropping his demand for an international commission to investigate two weeks of
recent violence.
That demand had been a deal-breaker, as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had said
he only trusted the United States to look into the clashes that have left nearly 100
people dead - nearly all Palestinian.
Nabil Shaath, Arafat's planning minister, said Arafat had agreed to a summit in Egypt
once he had learned that Barak had agreed to allow "food and medicine into the
Palestinian territories and the withdrawal of Israeli forces."
But Barak had said a summit should be held with no conditions and it was unclear
whether Barak had agreed to the conditions outlined by Shaath - loosening a closure
on the territories to allow food and medicine to enter, and pulling back from
Palestinian towns.
Shaath described the agreement to the summit as based on "new conditions" - an
apparent reference to the omission of Arafat's persistent call for an international
commission.
Barak's office said it was "positive" that Arafat had dropped his conditions and said
the prime minister had already expressed his willingness to attend a summit - as long as
there were no preconditions.
Barak still expected Arafat to "take necessary steps," he said, including re-arresting
dozens of Islamic militants released from Palestinian jails over the last few days. It was
significant that the Barak statement avoided referring to the measures as "conditions."
The office said that the summit would not address
"substantive" peace issues, only a cease-fire.
Barak had said that if Arafat was serious about ending the violence he would come
unconditionally.
If not, Barak said he had his own conditions, including disarming Palestinian militias
and a clear statement from President Clinton blaming Arafat for 16 days of bloodshed.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said a summit could be convened Sunday or
Monday. He was reportedly in touch with Clinton and was to fly to Egypt Saturday
to meet with President Hosni Mubarak.
Mubarak said Saturday that Egypt would host a Mideast summit in the resort town of
Sharm el-Sheikh "as long as it serves the Palestinian interest...and that is to be decided
by President Arafat," the Middle East News Agency reported.
Diplomats seemed to be trying for guarantees that a Barak and Arafat summit would
result in a formal agreement to end the violence.
An earlier round of U.S.-led mediation in France and then in Egypt failed to bring the
fierce fighting to a halt. Barak said that in Paris the two leaders had been presented
with a document to end the unrest but "Arafat refused to sign and went back to
violence."
Barak's foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, said that Israel expected the summit to offer
a solid way out of the violence and back to peace talks.
"We are not prepared to navigate into a tunnel without an exit," he told Israel radio.
He said Israel still expected Arafat to re-arrest dozens of Islamic militants released from
jail over the last few days.
Since the Paris summit, the situation has exploded into warlike conflict.
Across the West Bank Friday, Palestinians marched to protest Israeli missile attacks a
day earlier on Palestinian command centers - retribution for the brutal killing of two
Israeli reserve soldiers by a Palestinian mob at a police station in the West Bank city of
Ramallah.
Leaders of Arafat's Fatah movement there vowed to continue fighting and gunbattles
later erupted between some of the demonstrators and Israeli troops manning a
checkpoint north of Ramallah.
Around Hebron, two Palestinians were killed during fighting with Israeli troops. Both
were to be buried Saturday. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops and Palestinians
exchanged fire after a pair of roadside bombs were detonated near a Jewish
settlement.
The 16 days of clashes were triggered by the visit of Israel's hardline opposition leader,
Ariel Sharon, to a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims.
On Friday, Israeli police trying to prevent new unrest at the site blocked Muslim
worshippers under the age of 45 from gathering for weekly noon prayers at the Noble
Sanctuary or Temple Mount, as it is known to Jews. For the past two Fridays, deadly
clashes have erupted there during prayers.
Elsewhere in Jerusalem, undercover Israeli police seized two Arab teen-agers throwing
stones at the U.S. Consulate.
Despite the incidents, Israel and the Palestinians appeared to be stepping back from
the brink of war. But relations were so strained that Arafat and Barak asked
international mediators, including Annan and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook,
to carry messages back and forth.
The goal of a summit would be to reach a truce, not to restart Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations. The fighting has cut deep wounds on both sides, with Barak and Arafat
each saying they no longer had a partner for peace.
"The minimum we need is a cessation of hostilities and cease-fire for one to go to the
table and talk. I think that should be done and I think it is going to be done," Annan
said after his meeting with Arafat.
Barak is also fighting an increasingly difficult battle for political survival. The Israeli
parliament reconvenes in two weeks, and the prime minister now only has the support
of 30 of 120 legislators. Israelis have been badly shaken by the violence and a new
poll indicated that if elections were held today, Barak would take a beating.
As a result, the Israeli leader has invited Sharon's Likud party to form an emergency
coalition, a step seen by the Palestinians as a signal that Barak has already abandoned
peace talks.
However, Rabbi Michael Melchior, a Cabinet minister, said an alliance with Sharon
might only be temporary. If Arafat returns to negotiations in good faith, "then I think it
will be difficult to stick ... with the national unity government," Melchior said. |
