Palestinian Official Warns Israel not to Enrage Arabs

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 18, 2002

Palestinian Official Warns Israel not to Enrage Arabs

Escalating Israeli acts against the Palestinians will enrage the whole Arab world, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday in Cairo.

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Escalating Israeli acts against the Palestinians will enrage the whole Arab world, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday in Cairo.

After his talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Erekat told Xinhua that "Israeli policy of occupation has drawn the wrath of the Arabs, and the Israeli aggressive acts have turned the Mideast region into a fire ball with billowing flames."

Erekat also called on the United States to adopt a balanced policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts and urged the international community to press Israel to take "appropriate moves" to restart peace talks.

As for US and Israeli claims that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is not capable of reining in violence, Erekat said the Palestinian side has done everything it can to defuse regional tensions and create conditions for peace-making efforts.

"Unfortunately, all the efforts have failed due to the escalating Israeli acts in the occupied Palestinian lands," he added.

The Palestinian official stressed that "the Palestinian people will continue their fight till an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders and the creation of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Erekat, who arrived here late Friday from Saudi Arabia, held talks with Maher on ways to achieve peace according to an Arab peace initiative endorsed by the Beirut Arab summit in March.

The Arab peace plan proposes an Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab lands it has occupied since the 1967 Middle East War in exchange for the normalization of Arab-Israeli ties.

Erekat also briefed Maher on the outcome of his recent talks with US officials in Washington as well as his talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres earlier this week.

The United States has conditioned the establishment of a Palestinian state on the change of the Palestinian leadership led by Arafat.

During his stay in Washington, Erekat defended the leadership of Palestinian National Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and insisted that the ongoing Palestinian reform be the Palestinians' own business.

Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israelin 1979, has been playing a key mediating role in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflicts.

Source: Xinhua

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