|
Arafat, Putin And Barak Hold Conference Call
WASHINGTON & JERUSALEM (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was in Moscow Friday when Russian President Vladimir Putin helped connect him with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for a conference call to aid in alleviating the violence in the Middle East.
Arafat hoped by his visit to mobilize a larger interventionist role by Russia in stopping the violence in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Facing a declining role in the region and overshadowed by an American hegemony in the peace talks, the Russian leadership quickly responded to Arafat’s request for mediation.
Arafat and Barak agreed to restore low-level channels of communication and to reopen the liaison offices in Gaza and the West Bank that had been shut down following the eruption of clashes, which served for security cooperation and communicating channels between the two sides.
Following the phone conversation, Putin offered general remarks on solutions to end the violence in the region.
Welcoming Arafat to the Kremlin, Putin only said that an end to the violence was essential for any diplomatic effort to succeed.
"We are absolutely convinced that any meetings and efforts would be useless if we fail to reduce the degree of confrontation and violence in the Middle East," he said.
Israel on Thursday had ordered Palestinians to leave the 10 liaison offices in Gaza and the West Bank, which were the only regular channels of contact between the sides, after an Israeli officer was killed by a bomb planted in one of the shared compounds in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Authority officials have denied responsibility for the attack and refused to shut down the offices.
Meanwhile, Thursday morning, a fighter jet from the Israeli Air Force dropped bombs on the West Bank city of Nablus, reported The British Independent.
Israeli officials said the bomb drop was a mistake and that the bomb was free of explosives. But the blunder was serious enough for the Israeli armed forces to rush a statement out "expressing sorrow" and to offer to help the Palestinian Authority clean up the damage, the Independent said on Friday.
Earlier, Israel said on Thursday that Arafat was willing to resume the now-stalemated Middle East peace talks in a bid to halt two months of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Occupied Territories, news agencies reported.
The new quest for peace came during a phone call from United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright after a car blast in northern Israel killed a man and woman. The bombing came immediately after Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in the Occupied Gaza Strip.
Israeli acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said Albright told him that Arafat called her to signal his desire to revive peace negotiations cut off since the escalation of violence.
Ben Ami said Albright called him after the meeting of Israeli’s Security Cabinet to discuss the bombing.
“I don’t know if it is a serious proposal but this is at least what the man [Arafat] did in a phone call he initiated to her [Albright]. This is what she told me last night,” Ben-Ami told Radio Israel.
“If there is anything real in this...it could be that there is a certain signaling of distress and a desire to get out of this cycle,” he added. “It is our obligation to allow the Americans to check it out.”
Two Palestinian groups had claimed responsibility for the bomb attack in the Israeli town of Hadera, the Islamic Resistance group Hamas, and an unknown group called The Islamic Revolution for the Liberation of Palestine.
Police Chief Yehuda Wilk warned Israelis that they must prepare for more attacks. Security forces would spread out on streets and public places in large numbers in case more attacks were launched.
“This is not a hermetic system. It is possible to penetrate. I can’t say definitely that it is possible to prevent the next terrorist attacks,” Wilk told radio Israel.
At least two Palestinians were killed in fresh clashes on Thursday near the Gaza-Egypt borders following two months of Israeli violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had blamed the Palestinian Authority for Wednesday's blast and vowed to “get even”. The Palestinian leadership, however, denied any link to the attack.
Albright said she would discuss with Arafat and Barak new measures to implement a cease-fire agreement and to resume peace talks.
Violence has been escalating in the Occupied Territories for two months after a provocative visit by Likud party leader Ariel Sharon to the holy site of al-Aqsa mosque, initiating the second Palestinian Intifada and clashes that have claimed the 250 lives, most of them Palestinian.
|
