Arafat to Visit Egypt for Talks With Mubarak on SaturdayPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat will visit Egypt on Saturday to hold talks with President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian International Press Center said on Friday.The meeting will take place on Saturday morning at Mubarak's presidential palace in northeastern Cairo, the center said. Arafat's visit comes when violent clashes erupted in Jerusalem and the West Bank between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police after Israeli right-wing Likud leader Ariel Sharon visited Al-Haram Al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday. The site is known as the Temple Mount to Jews. Arafat is expected to brief Mubarak on the latest tense situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and its impact on the peace talks with Israel, diplomats in Cairo said. Al-Haram Al-Sharif houses Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Islam's third holiest site. The Israelis say it is the site of the ancient Jewish Temple, the most sacred shrine of Judaism. The control of sovereignty over the site lies at the core of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The two leaders are also expected to discuss the talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in Washington in the past three days, the diplomats said. No progress has been reported in the Washington talks. |
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