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Violence Must Be Curbed Before Further Talks: Barak
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday that violence should be reduced first before Israel and the Palestinians could resume peace negotiations based on a US peace plan.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, Barak also called on the Palestinians to significantly reduce media "incitement" against Israel, according to a press release by the prime minister's office. The release did not elaborate.
Barak stressed that a security meeting in Cairo, Egypt, between Avraham Dichter, head of Israel's General Security Service (Shin Bet), and Mohammed Dahlan, chief of the Palestinian Preventive Security Forces on Sunday is aimed at ending the violence.
The meeting is to be co-hosted by George Tenet, chief of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Omar Suleiman, head of Egypt's Intelligence Service.
Last month, US President Bill Clinton presented to the two sides proposals on restarting the peace talks, which came to a halt due to the three months of Israeli-Palestinian clashes triggered by a provocative visit by Israeli opposition Likud leader Ariel Sharon to al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, September 28.
During Sunday's cabinet meeting, Barak's top aide Danny Yatom and Cabinet Secretary Yitzhak Herzog, who have just returned from visits to Moscow, Rome and Oslo, briefed the ministers on their meetings with Russian, Italian and Norwegian leaders.
They updated the leaders on the diplomatic and security situations in the region.
According to their evaluation, the chances of achieving an agreement with the Palestinians before the end of Clinton's term on January 20 are slim "given the continuing violence in the Palestinian territories.
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