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To: DebtBomb who wrote (17796)	9/22/2001 4:34:40 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 208838

Peres, Arafat to release joint statement By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Correspondents and Agencies Ariel Sharon: We cannot live with terror. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat are to release a joint statement after their meeting which is expected to take place Sunday. The statement will serve as the basis for the continuation of Israeli-Palestinian talks. Peres and Arafat are to meet Sunday if quiet prevails in the territories Saturday night. These are the main points of the joint statement: - The two sides are committed to cease-fire and to the implementation of the Tenet plan and the Mitchell report. - Security coordination will be renewed as well as the work of the joint committees. - In areas in which quiet prevails, Israel will ease closures and blockades, and will open the roads between Palestinian towns and international borders crossings in the Palestinian Authority. - The IDF will redeploy its forces in the territories. - Israel will give Palestinian workers entrance permits. - Economic projects initiated by countries which contribute to the Palestinian Authority will be renewed, and money belonging to the Palestinian Authority will be released by Israel. The joint statement was drafted in a meeting Saturday morning between Peres, Parliament Speaker Abu Ala and senior negotiator Saeb Erekat in Tel Aviv, in which the meeting with Arafat was prepared. Foreign Ministry director-general Avi Gil and chief of the Planning Branch, Giora Eiland attended the meeting and presented Abu Ala and Erekat with a plan to ease restrictions on the Palestinian population in the territories, as well as the plans for the IDF's redeployment in the territories. Diplomatic sources said there was a great deal of progress in the preparatory talks. They said Peres and Arafat are to meet Sunday if quiet in the territories continues and a location for the meeting is agreed upon. According to the diplomatic sources, reports indicate that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority are making serious efforts to stop terror activities. Peres said Saturday that he is not convinced that his meeting with Arafat will be a success, but he must hold the meeting because it is important to the United States. Arafat said Friday that he believed a meeting between himself and Peres would take place Sunday night. Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, Arafat said he had received a message from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, through Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, according to which Sharon said he would be very serious about conducting diplomatic negotiations if the cease-fire was maintained. Sharon promised U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday that preparations were made for the Peres-Arafat meeting. Sharon told Powell that if quiet in the territories continues, the meeting will take place, but pointed out that the Palestinians were still shooting in the territories. Sharon on Friday branded Arafat a "terrorist," but said he hoped the two sides would start talks next week on turning a shaky cease-fire into a lasting truce. Sharon and his inner cabinet decided early Friday to persevere with the cease-fire, which has brought relative calm to the West Bank and Gaza Strip after a year of bloodshed. Sharon later told CNN television in an interview in southern Israel that he hoped the situation would be calm enough for Peres and Arafat to hold truce talks some time next week. "I believe that next week, I hope it will happen - that it will be quiet and calm and there will be the meeting," Sharon said. Despite his hopes for a meeting, Sharon bitterly criticized Arafat during the interview. "Arafat is a terrorist. We have to understand that. He is a terrorist hosting terrorist organizations," he said. "But I hope that with the Palestinian people the day will come that we will be able with them to host peace negotiations... but we will not live with terror. We cannot live with terror." Sharon also congratulated U.S. President George Bush for his determination to "lead the world against terror," and offered Israeli support at "any minute, [with] any kind of help."