Arafat Refuses to Attend Arab Summit Conditionally: Statement

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Arafat Refuses to Attend Arab Summit Conditionally: Statement

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would refuse to leave Ramallah and attend the annual Arab summit to be held in Beirut on Wednesday, a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) statement said.

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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would refuse to leave Ramallah and attend the annual Arab summit to be held in Beirut on Wednesday, a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) statement said.

"President Arafat's participation in the Arab summit is an absolute right, but it would never be accepted that this right is to be used by Israel to blackmail the Palestinians and their leadership," said the statement.

"The Palestinian leadership refuse any link between ceasefire talks and allowing Arafat to leave the Palestinian territories to participate in the Arab summit," it said.

The statement was issued after a four-hour meeting of the PNA cabinet, which discussed a paper presented by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni in a security meeting held on Sunday night between Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

PNA security officials also attended the cabinet meeting that was chaired by Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The security officials were supposed to attend another security meeting between Israel and the Palestinians on Monday night, but they asked Zinni to postpone the security meeting until Tuesday morning in order to have enough time to discuss Zinni's paper.

Jibril Rajoub, chief of preventive security in the West Bank, said that Zinni's document is still very far from the Palestinian demands.

The Palestinians insist on bringing situation back to before the beginning of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, 18 months ago, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas, lifting siege on towns and closure on territories and reopening the Orient House in east Jerusalem

The statement called upon the Israeli government to be committed to the signed agreements that arranges the relationship between the PNA president and Israel.

"Denying such agreements and commitments and use military and security measures to blackmail the Palestinians to get more concessions are just illusions that can never become true," said the statement.

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