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Arafat-Peres Meeting Postponed: PLO Official
A possible meeting between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has been postponed due to differences on time and venue, a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said Monday in Cairo.
"Such a meeting has been postponed because of some problems on the time and place," Director of the PLO Political Department Farouk Al Kadoumy told Xinhua after attending a meeting of Arab foreign ministers.
The Palestinian side proposed to hold the Arafat-Peres talks at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Taba, but the idea has been rejected by Israel, Kadoumy said.
"The Israelis think that choosing Taba as the venue would be considered a continuation of the latest Palestinian-Israeli peace talks," said Kadoumy, referring to negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israeli government led by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak in the Egyptian resort town in late January.
In January, the Palestinians and Israel concluded their Taba talks by issuing a joint statement, saying that they were never closer to a deal to resolve their decades-old conflict.
On Monday, Peres denied a report by Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique which said that he would meet Arafat on Tuesday.
Arafat later also said in Gaze that no agreement on a date or venue had been reached after meeting with the European Union envoy to the Middle East Miguel Angel Moratinos.
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