Arafat confers with CIA chief
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 9/4/2000

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Saturday evening in Ramullah met with the chairman of the CIA George Tenet, currently visiting Israel and the Palestinian self-rule area.

The Israeli radio said the US official stressed to Arafat that the US President Bill Clinton is determinant to exert all possible efforts in order to reach an agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian sides until the end of his term of office and that time is running out.

For its part, Palestinian sources said that Israel will not permit the CIA head to visit al-Aqsa mosque.

At the meantime, the US-ME peace process coordinator Dennis Ross on Saturday returned back after his failure in achieving any breakthrough in the negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

Meantime, Israel's prime minister Ehud Barak said that so far no date has been fixed to convene a tripartite meeting between him, the US President Bill Clinton and the chairman of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in New York this week.

The Israeli radio quoted Barak as saying during the cabinet meeting on Sunday that he found no flexibility at the Palestinian side or indication on what he described as openness that would help the promotion of negotiations forward.

By the end of the week, Barak made telephone calls with the French President Jacques Chirac, the Finnish President and Germany's chancellor and discussed with them the Palestinian - Israeli negotiations following the failure of the recent Camp David negotiations. The Israeli radio reported.

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search