Israeli, Palestinian Ministers to Renew Contact

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 09, 2002

Israeli, Palestinian Ministers to Renew Contact

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will meet Tuesday with two of the Palestinian National Authority's newly-appointed ministers, According to an Israeli government source on Monday.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will meet Tuesday with two of the Palestinian National Authority's newly-appointed ministers, According to an Israeli government source on Monday.

The meeting will be first such contact between the two sides in months.

The Israeli source said that Peres will meet with Palestinian Finance Minister sallam Fayad and Interior Minister Abdel Razaq al yehya, who were newly appointed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to implement the current Palestinian reforms.

All diplomatic contacts between the two sides has stopped since March this year after several ceasefire efforts failed and after Israeli troops' Operation Defensive Wall was launched as a responseto a suicide bombing in north Israel's Netanya that killed over 30 people.

It was learnt that Tuesday meeting has got permission from both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arafat.

The three ministers will discuss the renewal of joint security arrangements and ways of easing bad conditions for the residents ofthe West Bank, currently under control of Israeli troops in the so-called Operation Determined Path.

Sources in Jerusalem said Sharon has not placed any restrictionson Peres' meetings with Palestinian dignitaries, and the foreign minister can meet with whomever he wishes, with the exception of Arafat who was recently abandoned by US President George W. Bush inhis speech on Middle East peace process.

However, according to an Jerusalem Post report on Monday, Sharon granted Peres permission to meet with two newly elected Palestinian ministers, but instructed Peres that the discussions would not be as open as the foreign minister would have liked and they should be limited to only economic and military issues.

Local observers believed that the renewal of contacts between the two sides is a sigh of progress to break through the current dangerous state of paralysis in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

After being hostile to each other for so long, it's constructivefor the parties to meet with each other face to face so as to rebuild their mutual trust, the observers said.

Israeli troops launched a new incursion into Palestinian cities in the current Operation Determined Path after a trio of attacks that killed 31 Israeli civilians from June 18-20. Since then, Israeli army has taken over all but one of the eight major Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank while imposing curfew to some 700,000 Palestinian residents.

The new military operation has raised wide concern among the world that the situation may deteriorate, leading the "entire region into anarchy."

According to a recent survey conducted by a group of Israeli researchers, it is now clear for most Israelis that the occupation and control over the Palestinian people is a heavy burden that is gradually breaking the back of Israeli society.

"This burden must be shaken quickly through dialogue and there is no other means to find a way out," said a local observer.

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