The press is issuing conflicting reports on the time and place of the projected meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
AFP cited the Italian press as saying the two men might meet soon in Egypt, quoting Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero, who recently returned from a diplomatic visit to the Middle East.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper, meanwhile, said the meeting would take place on Friday in Italy.
"This (Arafat-Peres) meeting must be very carefully prepared... It should be held as soon as possible... most likely in Egypt," said Ruggiero, who added that he had spoken for one and a half hours with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Sharon reportedly confirmed that the Arafat-Peres dialogue was his initiative, and therefore it had his full support and that of the Israeli government.
Haaretz said Sunday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s top political advisor, Osama Al Baz, met with Peres Friday to arrange a meeting between the minister and Arafat in Italy this Friday.
Haaretz said that Peres wanted to hold a series of talks with Arafat on issues concerning a cessation of "violence" and the alleviation of the economic hardships suffered by ordinary Palestinians in the Occupied Territories as a direct result of the Israeli siege.
Although Peres requested that these discussions be held in the region, it appears that he will assent to the Italian venue, which confers "European patronage" to the PA leader, the paper added.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Sunday there was "no real preparation" for the meeting, as quoted by the agency.
"There is no real preparation for this meeting," Abed Rabbo told reporters in Ramallah, adding that without sufficient advance work, "the meeting has no chance to succeed."
The Palestinian official set a number of issues to be dealt with before the much-anticipated meeting, aimed at putting an end to more than 11 months of bloodshed which have claimed more than 760 lives, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinian civilians.
"We want to know what the Israeli position is on the Mitchell recommendations, whether Israel intends to end their blockade (of the Palestinian territories) and stop their attacks, and whether they want to freeze settlement activities," he said.
The Mitchell plan, drafted by a committee under former US senator George Mitchell, recommends a six-week cooling-off period with confidence building measures, a freeze on developing Jewish settlements and finally a return to political negotiations.
Abed Rabbo also demanded an international presence for any Israeli-Palestinian talks.
The Peres-Arafat meeting was brokered by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Arafat and Peres shared the 1994 Nobel peace prize for an interim peace deal, and Egypt is one of only two Arab nations to have a peace treaty with Israel.
A meeting between the two in Madrid earlier this year failed to come up with a solution to the spiraling crisis – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
