Arafat, Zinni Meet in Ramallah

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 05, 2002

Arafat, Zinni Meet in Ramallah

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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and U.S. Mideast peace envoy General Anthony Zinni met Friday in the West Bank town of Ramallah in a bid to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Zinni is meeting with Arafat for the first time since the Israeli army reoccupied Ramallah and confined Arafat into his office since last Friday, said Palestinian officials.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Arafat, said that Zinni is only meeting Arafat at his office, adding that the Israeli army refused to allow other senior Palestinian officials to attend the meeting between Arafat and Zinni.

"Our demands are clear. Israel must as immediate as possible withdraw from the West Bank and end its incursions into the cities and refugee camps," said Abu Rudeineh who attended the meeting.

He said that ending the siege and closure and stopping as soon as possible the military offensive on the Palestinians "would positively contribute to moving the situation forward towards reaching a ceasefire agreement."

Journalists said that Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters atthem in order to prevent them reaching Arafat's compound to cover the meeting between Zinni and Arafat.

"We are expecting that Israel would reject our demands to end the offensive and withdraw from our territories," Abu Rudeineh said. "Israel has been rejecting all international resolutions to end the aggression on our people."

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