Arafat Urges US Mideast Envoy to Stay to Help End Violence

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 07, 2001

Arafat Urges US Mideast Envoy to Stay to Help End Violence

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafaturged on Thursday U.S. Mideast peace envoy General Anthony Zinni tostay in the region to help the Palestinians and Israel end violenceand implement signed agreements.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafaturged on Thursday U.S. Mideast peace envoy General Anthony Zinni tostay in the region to help the Palestinians and Israel end violenceand implement signed agreements.

Arafat asked Zinni to help end the Israeli security siegeimposed on the Palestinian territories for more than 14 months,Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Arafat, told reporters after ameeting between the two in the West Bank town of Ramallah.Zinni would continue his efforts to forge a ceasefire betweenthe two sides as the Israelis took an apparent time-out from theirmilitary assault on the Palestinians, which began on Tuesday."Ending the Israeli closure and siege and pulling Israeli troopsback from Palestinian-controlled areas would help the PNA fulfillits commitments and implement Mitchell report's recommendations,"said Abu Rudeineh.

"Zinni's meeting with President Arafat that coincides with Araband international efforts are good indications that these effortsare serious to end the Israeli aggression on our people," he said.He revealed that Zinni proposed to Arafat to arrange within thenext coming days joint Israeli and Palestinian meetings to besupervised by the Americans, adding that no meetings had been yetarranged.

After the meeting, Arafat also received Egyptian ForeignMinister Ahmed Maher who was dispatched by Egyptian President HosniMubarak Thursday on an "urgent mission" to save the region from "dangerous deteriorating situation" and help the two sides end theircrisis.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian and injured anothernear the settlement of Dogit in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday,Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

Israel Radio said the two gunmen belonging to Yasser Arafat'sFatah faction opened fire at Israeli soldiers searching formilitants who had fired mortar shells in the area overnight andearly morning.

The Palestinian sources gave no further details of the incident.

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