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Arafat, Barak Agree to Reopen Liaison Offices
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed on Friday to reopen the liaison offices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Arafat and Barak reached the agreement during a telephone conversation initiated by the Palestinian leader, who was on a visit in Moscow to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israel Radio reported.
In their conversation, Arafat and Barak also agreed to resume security coordination between the sides to reduce the violence, which has been raging in the Palestinian territories for eight weeks and left more than 260 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
The 10 coordination and liaison offices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were closed by Israel on Thursday after an Israeli army officer was killed and several soldiers wounded when an explosion ripped through one of the Gaza offices.
Following the explosion, PNA Minister of Civil Affairs Jamil Tarifi and PNA Secretary-General Tayeb Abdel-Rahim met with Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh and Coordinator for the Territories Maj-Gen Ya'acov Orr to discuss ways of ending the tension.
A senior Palestinian official said on Friday that the US Administration was also pressuring Israel and the Palestinians to reach an agreement to end the violence before the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins next Monday.
The official added that the US Administration fears that the clashes would spread to neighboring Arab countries during Ramadan, and would endanger US interests in the region.
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