No Date Set for Peres-Arafat Meeting: OfficialsNo date has been set for a ceasefire meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said on September 21.Early Friday morning, Israel's Ha'aretz daily reported that the meeting would take place Saturday night despite Thursday's shooting incidents, in which one Jewish female settler was killed and her husband was critically wounded. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said that the report was not true and the meeting is still in its preparing period. Meanwhile, Palestinian sources told Israel Radio that Peres has requested to postpone the meeting until Sunday, but no final date or location has been set. Peres has hoped that the much-anticipated meeting would help reduce the Israeli-Palestinian violence, which has lasted for nearly a year and left over 800 people dead, most of them Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who hesitated over whether to allow such a meeting to take place, has held an emergency security cabinet meeting to discuss the latest Palestinian attack and the fate of the planned Peres-Arafat meeting. No decision was made at the overnight cabinet meeting. It is doubtful that Sharon would cancel the Peres-Arafat summit this time, as he could not resist the US pressure to hold the meeting as soon as possible, according to the Ha'aretz daily. |
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