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Technology Stocks : Alcatel (ALA) and France -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (2589)	10/14/2000 8:35:43 AM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3891

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.