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Arafat Does All He Can to End Violence: Blair to Sharon
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is doing all he can to end the current bloody violence between Israel and the Palestinians, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon, the website of Israel's Ha'aretz daily reported on Tuesday morning.
Blair transferred the message to Sharon during a telephone conversation with the Israeli prime minister on Monday night, but the content was only revealed by the website of the daily on Tuesday.
Blair, who met with visiting Arafat at 10 Downing Street earlier Monday, reportedly told Sharon that Arafat was making a concerted effort to end the one-year-old violence, during which over 800 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed.
Sharon retorted that in his opinion, Arafat is not doing everything in his power to calm the region and he urged Blair to level greater pressure on the Palestinian leader for restoring quiet in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel and the Palestinians reached a ceasefire plan on September 26 and since then, the situation on the ground has been generally quieter than before.
Arafat's visit to Britain came amid conflicting signals in the Middle East, with Israel having pulled troops back from Palestinian-controlled areas in the divided city of Hebron but having resumed its policy of killing suspected militants.��
Palestinians have accused Israel of instigating violence to undermine Arafat's visit at Blair's invitation.
At the joint news conference with Arafat on Monday, Blair said that the Mideast peace process should lead to the formation of a Palestinian state.
For his part, Arafat urged Israel to resume final status negotiations with the Palestinians "immediately."
In response to those remarks, Sharon arranged a meeting with Blair in London at the beginning of next month to coordinate the two countries' stands on the peace process, according to the report.
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