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Arafat Expected to Meet Clinton on Peace
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accepted an invitation to meet US President Bill Clinton here for talks on the Middle East peace process, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Friday in Washington.
"President Arafat accepted the invitation to come to Washington but we are trying to work out the precise dates because the schedules are very tight nowadays," Erekat told reporters after meeting US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.
Clinton proposed separate meetings with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak last week but did not received immediate response from the two sides.
Before his meeting with Berger, Erekat first held talks with U. S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and US special envoy Dennis Ross on Friday.
Describing his talks with Albright and Ross as "candid and lengthy," Erekat said they discussed plans to set up an international commission to find out the facts about the violence, which erupted after Israeli right-wing leader Ariel Sharon paid a provocative visit to a holy site in Jerusalem on September 28.
"We want to see the United States exert every possible effort in order to ensure that the peace process go on toward achieving the objective which was agreed in the terms of reference of the whole peace process," he said.
The Palestinian negotiator said he also proposed international protection for Palestinians in West Bank and the Gaza Strip but Albright was cool to the idea. "We really think that international protection for the Palestinian people is something that has to be taken seriously by the United states," Erekat said.
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