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Arafat, Blair Discuss Peace Process in Britain
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged Israel to immediately resume negotiations for a peace deal, saying Monday that the crisis over terrorism should not delay a push to revive the peace process.
Arafat made the comments after 90 minutes of talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
U.S. officials have said Washington is drawing up a new initiative for putting the peace process back on track after more than a year of renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Elements of the plan have not been made public yet, but President Bush said Thursday that political talks should lead to creation of a Palestinian state.
The U.S. officials have said the plan could be released in mid-November. Arafat said Monday that efforts to revive talks should not be delayed because of the Sept. 11 terror attacks of the subsequent U.S. campaign against Afghanistan.
"On the contrary, I say it is time to reinvigorate the peace process," Arafat said.
"We are not asking for the moon. We are asking for the United Nations resolutions to be implemented," Arafat said, referring to U.N. decisions in favor of an Israeli withdrawal from lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.
Blair said he was in agreement with establishing a Palestinian state.
"The end we desire ... is a just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side, each in their own state, secure and able to prosper and develop," Blair said.
"That is the only sensible outcome, and we must seize this moment to make progress toward that end."
Blair's office later said the prime minister and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke on the telephone and agreed to meet next month when Sharon visits London unless an earlier opportunity arises.
Arafat, who arrived Sunday, met Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Blair before flying on to Ireland for a meeting with Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
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