Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will meet in Spain on Friday, Palestinian officials said, following the failure of security talks to secure Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israel launched yet another incursion into PA-ruled areas, reported AFP.
Peres and Arafat, as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, are due to attend a conference of European and Mediterranean countries in Formentor on the Spanish island of Majorca, officials said.
"[Peres and Arafat] will be at the same table during the speech session. Of course the two leaders will meet," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Israeli officials said no meeting was planned, however.
The annual forum will be held on the 10th anniversary of the Madrid Conference, which launched the now moribund Arab-Israeli peace process.
Meanwhile, high-ranking security Palestinian and Israeli officers ended a meeting late Monday with "no concrete result," despite the success of Israel's peaceful pullback Sunday night from Bethlehem.
The town had been the scene of heavy fighting since Israel stormed a string of Palestinian areas after Palestinian gunmen killed cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi on October 17, in retaliation for the assassination of their own leader.
Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikai added that "during this meeting in Tel Aviv, the Palestinians refused to commit to arresting terrorists, which is a necessary condition for further Israeli withdrawals from autonomous Palestinian sectors."
He added that the joint High Security Committee would meet again under US auspices, but did not provide a date.
NEW ISRAELI ATTACK TARGETS REFUGEE CAMP
Meanwhile, the Israeli army made a new thrust of some 200 meters into Palestinian-controlled territory in the Dir el Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip overnight Monday, in an alleged attempt to trap Palestinians firing mortar shells at Jewish settlements. The force later withdrew, said the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper.
The operation followed the firing of five mortars late Monday at settlements and army outposts in the Gaza Strip. There were no injuries in any of the attacks, said the paper.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said earlier that a further withdrawal would also depend on the calm being maintained in Bethlehem, which was severely battered by the Israeli incursion.
"The continuation of calm in the Bethlehem region will be a test and a condition for our troops withdrawing from the autonomous sectors re-occupied over the past 10 days," spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.
Arafat, said on his arrival in Italy Monday night that he "hoped that the withdrawal of the Israelis from all Palestinian towns and villages will continue."
His top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the Bethlehem withdrawal was "not enough" and insisted that Israel pull back from all the towns it has besieged or partially invaded, killing around 50 Palestinians.
On the political front, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was mulling canceling a planned trip to Washington after attacks Sunday in the heart of the Jewish state that killed five Israelis.
Sharon, under rising pressure from his chief ally the US to end the bloody conflict, ordered his heavy armor and troops out despite the killings in two attacks in northern Israel.
But as tanks remained in or around five other Palestinian cities in the West Bank, Sharon was not yet out of diplomatic hot water with the United States.
Also at the political level, the offical Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported that the EU had called on both parties to head back to the negotiating table immediately, without setting prior conditions.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official told AFP that British Prime Minister Tony Blair would meet Arafat in Gaza City Thursday "in an effort to save the peace process."
Arafat made a trip to meet Blair in London two weeks ago, just before Zeevi's killing and the Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns.
The British embassy refused to comment on a possible visit by Blair, whose movements abroad have been kept under wraps by Downing Street for security reasons linked to the Afghan war.
In Italy, Arafat is due to meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Pope John Paul II before heading off for Norway for talks with Norway's new prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik.
He will jet back to Gaza City Thursday for a meeting with Blair before dashing off to Spain where his officials said he will see Peres, added AFP.
Arafat and Peres last met on Sept. 26 in Gaza to agree on a truce to try to end the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation.
According to AFP, over 700 Palestinians have been killed so far, and more than 170 Israelis have died – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
