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Arafat, Peres Meet Briefly in Spain
Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Simon Peres met with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak informally on Friday, prior to the third Forum of Promotion of Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation.
Mubarak was the first to arrive at the Balearic island venue, followed by Peres, Arafat and Aznar, who moved to the capital of the Balearic province after presiding over a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday.
On his arrival, Peres told journalists that he had been invited to come to an economic conference and he was not scheduled to meet with Arafat, although he expressed willingness to exchange messages with the Palestinian leader.
According to the Israeli senior official, although an imminent resumption of peace talks between Israel and Palestine is impossible, "once the Palestinians are ready to offer guarantees (of security), we'll withdraw" from the occupied territories.
Arafat refrained from issuing declarations and did not comment either on the possibility of meeting with Peres.
Mubarak and Arafat were the first to meet in the gardens of the hotel where the forum is taking place, and along with their advisers they talked for some minutes around a table.
Minutes later, Peres with his delegation approached and joined the talks between Mubarak and Arafat amid a group of photographers who wanted to take pictures of the informal meeting, the first contact between Peres and Arafat since September.
The Forum of Promotion of Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation, sponsored by the Spanish-Argentine oil consortium Repsol-YPF, was designed to promote dialogue across the southern Mediterranean, but this year it is devoted to the Middle East peace process.
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