Israeli Peace Cabinet to Discuss Arafat's Peace ProposalsIsraeli peace cabinet will convene Friday to decide whether to accept Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's proposal of holding talks in the Egyptian city of Taba for a peace deal before Israel's February 6 Prime Ministerial election.According to an Israel Radio's report Thursday evening, most of the peace cabinet members, or key ministers who are involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, agreed to the plan proposed by Arafat to Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami at their meeting in Cairo on Wednesday. Even caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who estimated that chances of reaching a peace deal before the prime ministerial election are slim, will not prevent the peace cabinet from reaching such a conclusion, the radio reported. Yossi Sarid, a member of the peace cabinet and leader of the left-wing Meretz party, has claimed that Israel should immediately accept Arafat's proposal since not much time has left. Earlier Thursday evening, Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams concluded another round of talks near Tel Aviv. Barak's office said that the "substantive and serious" talks further clarified the positions of the two sides regarding various aspects of the peace process. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |