Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking Friday in an interview to The Washington Post published Saturday, said he told the Americans that he is interested in attending the Arab Summit in Beirut later this week and has asked the United States to intervene in his favor.
"I suggested I'll go to Beirut to talk to the Arabs directly about what might be achieved," Sharon said in his interview. "I would welcome an American initiative to advance such a move."
"What's interesting is the vision of peace and normalization with all the Arab world. But there appears to be a precondition - Israeli withdrawal to the '67 borders. Israel will not be able to do that if it wants to survive," he said.
Sharon told the newspaper that he plans to introduce to the Arab leaders his own peace plan, which "comprised of three stages."
The first stage would be a cease-fire as defined by the Tenet plan and the implementation of the Mitchell recommendations. The second stage would consist of a "long-term interim agreement granting the Palestinians territorial contiguity without naming final borders."
The final stage would be the establishment of final borders to be "determined by the future relations between Israel and the Palestinians and in the spirit of UN resolutions... 242 and 338."
A senior political source in Tel Aviv said Saturday that Sharon initially made the suggestion to attend the summit during talks with U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney earlier this week.
"Sharon said that he was ready to go to the Arab summit in Beirut to present Israel's views on the Saudi proposals. It is important the Arab states hear Israel's views," the source told Haaretz.
"Cheney took note of it... but there has been no answer from the Americans,"the source added.
Asked if Israel would give permission for Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to attend the summit, the prime minister said that Israel has "not yet decided whether to let him go."
A senior Palestinian official said Saturday that Sharon’s suggestion was provocative.
Arafat
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said Saturday, however, that Arafat does intend to attend the summit, which would be his first trip since Israel confined him to his Ramallah headquarters in December.
A senior Palestinian official who asked not to be identified said Arafat would go to the Beirut summit, after a stop-over in Cairo to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"President Arafat is going to Cairo on Monday and from there he will go to Beirut with President Mubarak to attend the summit," a senior Palestinian official said.
Palestinian officials said Arafat was expected to travel aboard a Jordanian helicopter to Amman and from there would fly on to Cairo, since his own helicopters were destroyed in israeli strikes three months ago.
Mubarak
Also Saturday, Mubarak phoned Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to assure him that he would be attending the summit, despite an earlier television report that quoted Egyptian sources as saying that the Egyptian leader would not attend.
The Qatari-based Al Jazeera television station Saturday morning quoted "reliable sources in Cairo" as saying that Mubarak would not attend the Arab summit to be held March 27-28 in Beirut. The station reported that his decision was due to serious differences of opinion with Arab leaders on the stance that should be taken regarding Iraq.
In addition, Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, denied the report.
Clashes
Two Palestinians were shot dead while throwing grenades at a military post near the Gaza Strip settlement of Dugit on Saturday afternoon.
Palestinian security sources said three Palestinians were shot dead when israeli tanks fired on the Rafah refugee camp during an early morning raid, in which a factory and three homes were destroyed.
In Hebron, a Palestinian died Saturday morning of his wounds he sustained on Friday as he was shot and seriously injured by Israeli troops near the Wadi Al Hareya neighbourhood in Hebron.
Sources at Rafah Hospital said toddler Ridda Abu died overnight of critical injuries sustained Thursday night by heavy Israeli gunfire.
Palestinian sources reported that Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers advanced 200 meters into Rafah on Saturday, shelling houses and firing machine guns. Israel said troops were searching areas under Israeli security control to locate and destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons.
Palestinian residents of the Al Barazil neighbourhood in Rafah, on the border of the Strip and Egypt, said that Israeli tanks and infantry troops entered their neighborhood around midnight Friday and demolished two homes near the border.
They said that armed confrontations and exchanges of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops took place in Rafah throughout Friday night and into Saturday morning.
They said that Israeli troops opened fire Friday night and early Saturday at Palestinian worshippers leaving Rafah's Al Noor Mosque. Fifteen people were injured, they said, two seriously.
Following Saturday’s killings the Palestinians accused Israel of wanting to block a ceasefire deal.
"Israel wants to apply neither the Tenet plan nor the Mitchell recommendations," Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP.
"It wants only to arrive at a ceasefire without undertaking a (political) step. The Israelis want to be judges and decide alone," Abed Rabbo said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
