Mubarak, Arafat Hold Talks on Palestinian-Israeli NegotiationsEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak Thursday met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to discuss Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in recent days aimed to reach a peace deal.The meeting was held after their talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami Wednesday, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported. The two leaders met one-on-one for about 90 minutes, then were joined by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa as well as Mahmoud Abbas, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee and Nabil Shaath, Palestinian minister of international cooperation. The news agency did not give further details about the talks. Arafat arrived here late Wednesday and met Ben-Ami, who wa on a brief visit to Egypt. The two sides concluded their overnight meeting without announcing any breakthrough in either ending the violence on the ground or reviving the stalled Middle East peace process. The clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians have lasted for more than 16 weeks and killed more than 350 people, most of them Palestinians. The Palestinian side stressed that any peace settlement should based on the UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, especially East Jerusalem, and guarantee the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homeland. |
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