Failure of Arafat-Barak summit, rollback in ME peace process
Egypt, Politics, 2/7/2000

Foreign Minister Amr Moussa dubbed the current situation in the Middle East peace process as a major rollback or at least an indication in that direction as far as Israeli commitments were concerned.

Speaking to the press Saturday, Moussa said the naught outcome resulting from Thursday's summit between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Premier Ehud Barak is casting a dark shadow over the Palestinian track and the multilateral negotiations.

Moussa, believing the Palestinian track was suffering a crisis, said he took a phone call earlier in the day from the Palestinian leadership voicing grave concern at the negative results they had been faced with.

He expressed Egypt's dissatisfaction with the current situation which, he said, could lead to a setback to the peace process.

Asked to comment on his Israeli counterpart David Levy's statements, in which he said there were no "sacred" dates either for implementing the third stage of Israeli West Bank redeployment or for meeting the February 13 deadline for reaching a framework agreement with the Palestinians, Moussa inferred that the agreed dates regarding the multilateral negotiations would not, and should not, be sacred either.

Moussa added that there is an Arab stance on the issue of displaced Palestinians, agreed upon during the tripartite meeting held in October in Gaza grouping the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In statements on the occasion of the meetings of the quadrilateral ministerial committee of the displaced Palestinians due in Cairo today, Moussa said previous discussions were held even at the ministerial level with the participation of Israel.

"These discussions will be completed during today's meeting," he added, hoping that the committee would start repatriation of the displaced Palestinians operation.

The Palestinian-Israeli pacts provide for the return of the displaced Palestinians to the West Bank and Gaza during the interim peace stage while the issue of the Palestinian refugees is to be handled during the final-status negotiations. The displaced Palestinians are the ones who left the West Bank and Gaza due to the Israeli occupation in June 1967.

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