Arafat will visit south Africa during August

Palestinian sources had told ArabicNews.com that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will pay an official visit south Africa next August according to an invitation by president of South Africa Nelson Mandela.

The sources said that Arafat will stay for more than two days during which he will hold talks with President Mandela.

Arafat's first visit to South Africa was in 1994, during the appointment of Mandela as the fist president to be democratically elected in the state.

The news of Arafat's visit came shortly after the government of South Africa refused a visa request from Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of the Hamas movement, to enter South Africa. The South African Foreign Ministry said that it considered the effect of such a visit on the current efforts to motivate the peace process.