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Arafat in Cairo for Talks on Palestinian-Israeli Clashes
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat began talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after his arrival Monday morning on the Palestinian-Israeli violence which has killed about 90 Palestinians.
The leaders would discuss the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian areas and seek ways of containing the violence, amid a flurry of international diplomatic activities aimed at stopping the bloodshed, diplomats in Cairo said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and Palestinian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath and other senior aides of the leaders took part in the talks.
Moussa went straight into the meeting after returning from Turkey, where he cut short a visit because of the escalating Palestinian-Israeli violence and tension on Israel's borders with Syria and Lebanon, officials said.
In an interview with the Turkish private channel NTV, Moussa said the Middle East peace process is entering "a difficult phase" and "is facing the danger of blowing up."
He urged Israel to avoid provocative acts against the Palestinians and said Egypt was trying to get both sides to sit down for face-to-face talks to try to achieve a lasting and significant result.
Sunday night, Mubarak held a telephone conversation with Arafat and discussed the latest developments in the light of Israeli threats, and means to stop Israeli aggressions on the Palestinian people, Egypt's Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.
Earlier Sunday, Mubarak received a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who asked the Egyptian leader to urge Arafat to help bring a return to a calm situation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel, MENA said.
About 90 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,000 others wounded by Israeli security forces in the last 11 days of bloody clashes triggered by the provocative visit of Israeli hawkish opposition Likud party leader Ariel Sharon to the Islamic holy site, Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, on September 28.
The world community is deeply concerned with the situation in the Middle East and has been making efforts to help defuse the tension and restart the Arab-Israeli peace talks. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday after talks in Syria and Lebanon.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was due to travel to Israel to try to use personal diplomacy to end the bloodshed in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.
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