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Sharon, Peres Wrangle Over Proposal on Three-Way Meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres wrangled on Sunday during a cabinet meeting over a proposal to hold a meeting between Peres, U.N. chief Kofi Annan and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israel Radio reported.
The proposal was put forward by Arafat during his meeting with Annan on Saturday in the the West Bank city of Ramallah. Annan put the proposal to Sharon when they met late Saturday night in Jerusalem. But Sharon rejected it.
Sharon rejected the offer, which called for the three-way meeting on Sunday in Ramallah, on the grounds that it could give the impression to the Palestinians that the Israeli government had finally agreed to hold negotiations under fire.
During the cabinet meeting, Sharon said that he would not allow such a three-way meeting to take place, according to the radio report.
Peres cut in angrily and told Sharon that in fact the negotiations with the Palestinians had already been revived even the conflict was still going on, it added.
The two sides have been talking to each other on security issues and ways to end the conflict and this was also part of the negotiations in the peace process, Peres shouted back.
Peres also told Sharon that for moving the process forward, he can not be dictated by others and will never let the dictations to take place.
Following the quarrel between Sharon and Peres, cabinet ministers from the right and left joined the wrangle, the radio added.
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