Egyptian-Palestinian-Jordanian meeting

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher said that the two-hour tripartite ministerial meeting, which was held yesterday was part of coordination among Egypt, Jordan and Palestine.

He told the diplomatic editors that the meeting fell within the framework of directives of President Hosni Mubarak, King Abdullah and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat in service of the Arab and Palestinian issue.

In other statement Maher underlined that unless Israel is ready to discuss basic issues no headway would be made during Palestinian LeaderYasser Arafat's projected meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

In Press statements late Sunday following the meeting of the Arab Follow-Up Committee, Maher said: I have not heard of any Saudi initiative to convene a meeting between President Arafat and US President George W. Bush.

On the use of contacts made with the US in view of its pro-Israel stance, Maher said: We contact all parties and our viewpoint is that contacts are fruitful and important in expounding stances.

He referred in this regard to Durban meetings where the Arab side became engaged in a strong battle.

"If we had wrapped up contacts when the United States walked out of the conference we would not have realised 40, 50 or 60 percent," said the top Egyptian diplomat.

"They did not achieve what they wanted of emptying the statement from Israel, Palestine and talk about occupation," he stressed.

"I did not hear that anyone wants a modification of the Tenet plan and see there is a desire to implement both Tenet and Mitchell plans but Israel does not want to implement them," said Egypt's Foreign Minister.