No Plans to Meet Arafat: US Vice President

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 25, 2002

No Plans to Meet Arafat: US Vice President

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday morning that he had no immediate plans to return to the Middle East region to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

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U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday morning that he had no immediate plans to return to the Middle East region to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In a taped interview with CNN's program "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer", Cheney said that "as of right now, there is no meeting scheduled" with Arafat.

Cheney refused to meet with Arafat during his 10-day tour of 11 Middle East nations, which ended on March 13. However, he promised at the end of his visit to Israel that he would return to the Middle East as early as this week to meet Arafat on condition that the Palestinians take concrete steps to bring an end to the violence against Israel.

On Saturday, U.S. President George W. Bush said at a news conference in Peru that Cheney would meet Arafat "if and when Arafat performs" in clamping down on terrorism.

The United States has made it very clear to Arafat "that he is not doing all he can do to fight off terror," Bush said.

Meanwhile, White House officials said that they would have to decide by Sunday night whether Arafat has met the conditions for a meeting with Cheney.

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