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Peres "Reassured" In Bush Meeting
WASHINGTON, May 3 (News Agencies) - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Thursday he was "reassured" about making progress in Mideast peace talks after a meeting with President George W. Bush despite winning no new U.S. commitments.
"I am leaving the Oval [Office] reassured and with the sense that we can move ahead in the direction of peace to achieve a complete peace," Peres told reporters on departing the White House.
The two leaders agreed on the need to "work very closely" with Egypt and Jordan and Bush emphasized the importance he places on boosting ties between those two countries and Israel, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
The U.S. president reiterated his call for violence to end and stressed that Israelis and Palestinians should pursue security discussions.
Peres "leaves knowing full well that this administration is fully committed and actively engaged at first and foremost trying to break the cycle of terrorism that grips that part of the world," Bush said in a brief public appearance later.
Peres said he found the U.S. president "totally devoted to the peace process; informed, decisive, and I think we see eye-to-eye how to handle the situation in the future," and that Bush had "gladly" agreed to facilitate face-to-face talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
"When it comes to the peace process itself, I think we prefer to negotiate face to face and have the United States as a facilitator," he said. "The president says he will do it gladly."
Fleischer said Bush "has always indicated that he believes the role of the United States to be that of a facilitator."
Since taking office January 20th, Bush has taken a largely hands-off policy to forging lasting peace in the region, a goal that consumed much of predecessor Bill Clinton's energy.
The White House insists he is engaged, pointing to numerous phone conversations and meetings with regional leaders, but insists Washington will not "force a peace" on the Middle East.
The spokesman also confirmed that the White House had received the preliminary findings of an international commission appointed in October to investigate the causes of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israel.
The commission, headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, was expected to draw a balanced conclusion and concentrate more on ways of ending the violence than on apportioning blame, diplomats said, though a point of sensitivity would be the stress laid on Israeli settlements in fermenting Palestinian anger.
Over 500 people - mostly Palestinians - have been killed in the Palestinian territories and Israel since the Intifada began on September 28.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in South Africa, made an impassioned plea to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to agree to peace in the Middle East Thursday in a speech to a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference in Pretoria.
"I ... would like to say to Mr. Sharon: My commitment is for peace and stability for your children and my children in the Middle East region," Arafat said.
His declaration came amid a flurry of international moves to kickstart the peace process and as Sharon accused Arafat of having taken a strategic decision to continue attacks against Israelis.
Arafat reiterated his "full acceptance and commitment" to a Jordanian-Egyptian initiative launched last month aimed at stopping seven months of Palestinian-Israeli violence and restarting the peace negotiations.
"I do this with no reserve in order to revive the peace process and put it on the right track; I do so on behalf of the Israeli people, the Palestinian people and the people of the Middle East," Arafat told the ministers and ambassadors from 17 countries and his own Palestinian Authority who were meeting in the South African capital at Arafat's urgent request.
Apart from South Africa and the Palestinian Authority, delegates represented Algeria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Mali, Mauritius, Senegal, Singapore, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Seven of those countries - Bangladesh, Colombia, Jamaica, Mali, Mauritius Singapore, Tunisia - are also members of the U.N. Security Council, where they are also seeking to facilitate negotiations.
"We should put in the first place, the right of our Palestinian people to receive immediate international protection to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression ... we should stop the daily and bloody killing of our masses," Arafat declared.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, the current NAM chairman, told the conference that South Africa had agreed immediately to Arafat's request for the meeting "because the situation is very grave".
"As a movement, we are committed, and have been historically, and continue to be, committed to the emergence of an independent Palestinian state," he said.
"The Palestinian people are entitled to their nationhood, they are entitled to their own state. We need to move with more speed to meet its objectives."
Sharon, in a statement issued by his office in Jerusalem earlier Thursday, said: "The current attacks are the result of a strategic decision by Arafat."
"The organizations subject to Arafat - including Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah - understand that they have a green light to continue attacks against Israel."
Arafat also met with former South African president Nelson Mandela Thursday.
Mandela, who produced a Middle East peace plan in 1999, which was ignored, ruled out any further personal involvement in the process, saying he had confidence in Mbeki to coordinate its efforts.
"President Mbeki is handling this matter. He briefed me fully this morning and I prefer to leave it with him," Mandela said after meeting with Arafat in Johannesburg.
Arafat asked Mandela last year to intervene as a mediator in the Middle East conflict, but the former president turned him down.
"We are all concerned about the violence taking place in the Middle East and the deaths of so many people," Mandela said after introducing Arafat as an old friend.
"We hope that sooner [rather] than later we will pray ... together ... in East Jerusalem," Arafat said in Johannesburg.
The conference was continuing Thursday night.
Officials said no final communiqué was expected before Friday, but were unsure whether the meeting would continue for a second day.
In Jerusalem, meanwhile, Sharon distanced himself from his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, who was reported to have said during an exploratory mission to Washington that Arafat was not directly responsible for the attacks.
According to reports in the Israeli press Thursday, Peres told reporters in the U.S. capital that attacks were being carried out without Arafat's knowledge.
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