Arafat Can Go to Arab Summit if Ceasefire Agreed

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

Arafat Can Go to Arab Summit if Ceasefire Agreed - Peres

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday Israel would allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to go to the Arab League summit in Beirut if a ceasefire is reached.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday Israel would allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to go to the Arab League summit in Beirut if a ceasefire is reached.

"If the conditions are met in the ceasefire, I don't see any difficulty for Arafat to go to Beirut," Peres told reporters at the end of an official visit to China.

He also said the Saudi peace plan to be presented at the potentially ground-breaking summit in Beirut had potential, while adding: "But clearly we have to negotiate."

A senior official close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday that Israel had agreed "in principle" to a US bridging proposal on a ceasefire plan with the Palestinians.

But it has asked US envoy Anthony Zinni for certain "clarifications", the official said.

And an Israeli official said in Jerusalem Tuesday that Sharon did not feel conditions were yet right to allow Arafat to attend the Beirut gathering, set to begin Wednesday.

"Up to now, conditions are not right to allow Arafat to travel abroad. He has given no orders to his police to fight terrorism and he continues to incite violence," said the Israeli cabinet official, who asked not to be named.

"If he changes his attitude, we will re-examine the question, but for the moment there is no cabinet meeting scheduled to discuss the problem," he added.

Arafat is currently confined to Ramallah in the West Bank.

Israel has come under increasing US-led international pressure to allow Arafat to attend the Beirut meeting, which has raised hopes for a way out of violence which has killed almost 1,600 people in 18 months.

Source: Agencies

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