Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called Saturday on new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to resume talks where they left off with his predecessor and pleaded for a "peace of the brave" that will establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Addressing the Palestinian parliament for the first time since deadly Israeli-Palestinian clashes broke out in late September, Arafat called on the hawkish Sharon to restart negotiations on the basis of "existing agreements and understandings."
"We want a just peace, a peace of the brave, based on United Nations resolutions, that assures security and stability for our peoples and our region," Arafat said.
"The world has witnessed for nearly six months our willingness to make sacrifices to achieve our national rights and to protect our holy Islamic sites ... but the Palestinians have chosen the strategic option of peace," he said, hours after the five months of fighting claimed their 435th victim.
Arafat renewed calls for an independent Palestinian state with Jerualem as its capital and for respect of Muslim right over the hotly disputed Jerusalem mosque compound, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.
"I address the Israeli people and their elected government to tell them I understand their need for security and that they need to take into account our rights to the sacred sites of Islam. One cannot separate security and those rights," he said.
Earlier Saturday, a Palestinian official speculated that a summit between Arafat and Sharon was a "possibility," following an apparent easing of Sharon's hardline position after he took office Wednesday.
"We cannot say there's an agreement for such a meeting, but there are positive signs based on recent exchanges of letters between the two leaders, and there is a possibility of a meeting," Palestinian parliamentary affairs minister Nabil Amr told AFP.
But Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin denied any "efforts or contacts" were underway to arrange a summit.
In a letter sent to Arafat on Thursday, Sharon said he believed "the only way to reach peace is by dialogue and through direct negotiations, on the basis of the written and signed agreements and obligations between us."
"I hope we can find a way of establishing personal contacts soon to put an end to the cycle of bloodshed, violence and incitement to violence, and to renew the economic and security cooperation, while embarking on a return to genuine peace," he said.
Sharon had previously vowed not to meet with Arafat until an end to the deadly clashes.
The 435th victim of the fighting died Saturday morning, a Palestinian man who was killed instantly when he was hit during Israeli shooting and shelling at the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Some 80 percent of the victims of the fighting have been Palestinians.
Negotiations will likely be strenuous at any potential summit, as Sharon was elected after ruling out many of the compromises proposed by his left-leaning predecessor Ehud Barak, who had offered the Palestinians some sovereignty in Jerusalem.
While Sharon has toned down his hardline stances since taking power, he has in the past rejected the dismantling of any Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories or further Israeli army withdrawals.
And Arafat reaffirmed his commitment to what doomed last-minute US-brokered peace talks with the Barak government, Palestinian insistence that 3.7 million refugees have the right to return to homes in what is now Israel.
Rejecting criticism for not accepting Barak's offers, Arafat said it was Israel that "missed ... the chance to make peace."
"We did everything possible for peace to be achieved, but we were confronted with proposals that were unacceptable on the Palestinian side, Muslim and Christian, as these proposals distanced us from United Nations resolutions and from the terms of reference" of the peace process, he said.
Separately Saturday, the Israeli army said it has apologized to the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Michel Sabbah, after it blocked him from entering a Palestinian village to celebrate mass.
The responsible "soldiers and their superiors have personally offered their apologies before local officials of the church after having made their mistake .. and have been reminded of the norms regulating how to treat members of the diplomatic corps," a military spokesman said.
Sabbah, who was carrying a diplomatic passport and a VIP card issued by Israel's religious affairs ministry, said he was stopped Friday at an army checkpoint outside the village of Ein Arik, near Ramallah in the West Bank.
"If such things happen to a senior church figure, what is life like for ordinary Palestinian citizens?" he asked in a statement -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
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