Barak May Meet Arafat at UN Millennium SummitIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak will attend the upcoming United Nations millennium summit in New York next month, officials in Barak's office announced Tuesday.The summit, scheduled for September 6-8 in the UN headquarters in New York, will be attended world leaders, including US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the officials said. They did not rule out the possibility that the three leaders will hold another three-way summit there to resolve core issues between Israel and the Palestinians. Last month, the three held a 15-day summit at Camp David in the United States, but failed to reach any agreement due to significant differences over the fate of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees. Since then, the idea of holding another summit to wrap up a deal has been repeatedly raised. Arafat, who is visiting Vietnam on Tuesday, said in Hanoi that he did not rule out renewed Middle East summit talks next month. In a related development, Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin told Israel Radio Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinians are very close to reaching an agreement. The dovish minister, who is currently touring the United States to drum up Washington's support for Israel's stands in the peace talks, implied in the radio interview that the two sides had made progress on the issues of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Beilin added that a final accord could be negotiated by US Mideast special envoy Dennis Ross, who is dye to return to the region on Sunday. |
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