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Peres, Arafat to Meet on Ceasefire Commitment
The meeting between Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Shimon Peres and Palestinian National Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is expected to be focused on ways to stop the dragging clashes.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Office Chief Gilad Sher told Israel Radio on Wednesday that Peres would be carrying an " uncompromising demand" from Barak to Arafat.
"The principal and perhaps the only thing this meeting is intended to achieve is finally to receive from the Palestinians, from the chairman of the [Palestinian National] Authority, a clear pledge to stand by the Sharm el-Sheikh understandings, as we and they undertook two weeks ago" at the multi-national summit held at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"We want them to put an immediate halt to the incitement, the violence, the terrible acts that we have encountered in recent day", Sher said.
Peres, the first Israeli cabinet minister to meet the Palestinian leader since the outbreak of the current conflicts besides Barak, rejected reports that Barak and Arafat were holding secret contacts toward a Washington summit in about two weeks, in which U.S. President Clinton would host talks toward a final peace settlement.
Peres, an architect of the landmark 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Israel Army Radio that the current level of violence was such that it made it impossible for Clinton to invite either Barak or Arafat for separate talks.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate confirmed that he had hoped to meet with Arafat weeks ago, but Barak had barred the meeting, citing that he did not want Arafat to hear various messages from a number of representatives.
Barak reportedly met Peres on Monday when he lifted objections to the minister's meeting with Arafat. This came after Barak received an emotional letter from former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's window, Leah Rabin, urging him to use Peres's rich experience, skills and personal relations with Arafat to revive the peace talks.
Sher, also a top peace negotiator, told Israel Radio that the Peres-Arafat meeting was initiated by the Palestinian side. Sher is also to take part in the talks scheduled on Wednesday.
But Israel Army Radio reported later that Arafat's offices in Gaza and Bethlehem said they had no knowledge of an imminent meeting with the Israeli officials.
As a matter that seems to dampen expectations on the Peres- Arafat meeting, Palestinian militants warned Wednesday that the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza would only escalate and spread to areas like East Jerusalem, making "settlers lives in hell."
In the meantime, the Tanzim militia, affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement, joined the militant Islamic Hamas Wednesday in calling for an escalation of the intifada (uprising), the Army Radio reported.
The recent spate of Israeli-Palestinian clashes, sparked by Israeli opposition Likud leader Ariel Sharon's visit on September 28 to a disputed Jerusalem shrine, holy to both Jews and Muslims, have claimed more than 150 lives, mostly Palestinians.
Two more Palestinian youths were killed Wednesday in clashes with Israeli forces at the Karni crossing point in Gaza.
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