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Mubarak, Arafat Hold Talks on Ways to Stop Violence: Moussa
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks Wednesday with visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on ways to stop the violence in the Palestinian territories, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said.
The talks concentrated on "the events in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Palestinian view of the developments and contacts under way in order to end the tragedy," Moussa was quoted as saying by Egypt's official Middle East News Agency.
The Egyptian-Palestinian coordination and contacts are maintained "not only towards the now-running events in the occupied lands but also vis-a-vis the entire peace march," said Moussa. He urged Israel to abandon its "erroneous policy of intimidation and terrorism."
The Egyptian minister said that Arafat had expressed appreciation for Egypt's decision to recall its ambassador to Israel in protest of Israel's air raids against Palestinian targets in the Gaza strip late Monday night, which killed four Palestinians and injured over 100 others.
The air strikes were unleashed to avenge a bomb attack on an Israeli settlers' school bus in Gaza, which left two Israelis dead and nine others injured.
Arafat had planned to visit Cairo on Tuesday, but postponed the travel by a day following the Israeli raids.
The Palestinian leader regularly visited Egypt to consult Mubarak on the peace drive with Israel which has been severely damaged by eight weeks of bloody clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians.
Egypt, the first Arab state that signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been playing a major role in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
More than 250 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed and thousands more wounded in the clashes that erupted on September 28.
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