Arafat deny Barak pledged to admit the Palestinian state

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Wednesday denied a report aired by Israeli Army Radio that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had vowed to accept the declaration of the Palestinian state unilaterally, in September, if a framework agreement is not reached within the course of the set timetable to this effect.

The report stated that Barak told Arafat during their meeting at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on March 7 that he will not oppose the establishment of the Palestinian state in September if a framework is not reached concerning the final settlement until next May, as stated by the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.

For his part, Barak's advisor, Danny Yatoum, refused to confirm or deny this information and confined himself to saying, "I do not know that there are commitments concerning the state of Palestine."