|
United States' Middle East Envoy To Meet Arafat
WASHINGTON, May 24 (News Agencies) - The recently named U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, William Burns, and two other U.S. officials are expected to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "soon," the State Department said Thursday.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and U.S. Consul General Ronald Schlicher are slated to participate in the meeting with Burns and Arafat, for which a date has not yet been set.
However, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said during a press briefing in Washington that, "they will be meeting with Chairman Arafat soon."
Indyk and Schlicher already met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the 48 hours following publication of the international Mitchell commission report, which offers recommendations aimed at ending Middle East violence and bringing Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
Reeker said there is a strong "need for both sides to do everything they can to stop the violence."
"They [the Israelis and Palestinians] know what they need to do. We've repeatedly called for an end to Palestinian attacks from and Israeli incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas," Reeker said. "There's an opportunity here for both sides to seize, and we encourage them to do so."
Reeker said that a meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell, currently in Africa, and Israeli or Palestinian leaders was not in the works at this time.
In Amman, Arafat and Jordan's King Abdullah II called Thursday for a clear application mechanism to implement the Mitchell report findings on quelling the eight months of regional violence, an official Jordanian source said.
The two leaders stressed the "necessity of a mechanism for the full application of the report" and called for "a direct American role" in the setting up of such a mechanism, the same source said.
They "hailed the European position which backs the various initiatives aimed at putting an end to the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian territories and restarting the peace process," the source added.
Arafat told the press after his talks with the king that the Mitchell report "is, together with the Jordanian-Egyptian initiative, a basis for the application of what was agreed at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit [in October] for a fair and comprehensive settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians."
Arafat also said he would ask Burns to make working for the application of the accords between Israel and the Palestinians a "priority".
"I will ask Burns to work for the application of agreements already reached" with Israel, Arafat said.
He said his phone conversation on Wednesday with U.S. President George Bush was "positive, constructive and friendly" and insisted Bush had showed a "desire to revive" peace negotiations.
Arafat flew back Thursday night to Ramallah in the West Bank, putting an end to a tour that took him to France, Egypt and Jordan.
In Cairo, he met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to brief him on his talks Wednesday with French President Jacques Chirac and discuss the Mitchell report.
Earlier Thursday, Arafat's top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina also renewed Palestinian appeals for international intervention.
"We are asking the international community, especially the United States and the European Union, to push the Israeli government to stop the Israeli aggression and military escalation and send an international protection force," he said.
Jordan and Egypt have both welcomed the recommendations of the Mitchell commission, headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, into resolving the eight-month Palestinian uprising, or Intifada.
Amman and Cairo have also praised an announcement by the United States backing the report and naming a special envoy to help Palestinians and Israelis implement its recommendations.
While in Paris, Arafat called for a new Middle East summit to discuss the report, which recommended a halt to the violence that has left more than 560 people dead, a clampdown by the Palestinians on "terrorism" and a freeze on settlement building in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Arafat described the Mitchell report's findings as dovetailing with the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative's call for a ceasefire and a freeze on settlements.
"We must all work to stop the violence, the bombings, the military escalation through the full and immediate implementation of the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative and the Mitchell report," Arafat said after talks with Chirac.
He estimated a new summit, with the members present from the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in October, needed to take place "as soon as possible."
The Sharm el-Sheikh summit, convened during the first month of the Intifada, brought together Israel, the Palestinians, Egypt, Jordan, the European Union, the United States, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The summit ended with ceasefire measures, which were never implemented by Israel nor the Palestinians, and the creation of the Mitchell commission to investigate the origins of the conflict.
But since the Mitchell commission's recommendations were officially unveiled Monday in New York, violence between Palestinians and Israelis has continued.
|
