Arafat meets with Gingrich

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat received yesterday a delegation from the US congress, chaired by House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich recently said that Jerusalem is "the united and eternal capital of Israel," which provoked the Arab states and the Palestinians.

The Palestinian minister of planning and international cooperation, Nabil Shaath, told ArabicNews.com that the meeting was useful in that it opened for the first time a discussion among the Palestinian people and members of the congress.

He said the Palestinians informed Gingrich about the Palestinian right to Jerusalem, about Israeli settlements and their destructive effects on the peace process, about the continuous Judaization of Arab cities and about the Palestinian perception of the US role in the peace process.

Gingrich's trip to the Middle East have been mired with controversy as a result of many remarks he made in opposition to long standing US foreign policy positions on Jerusalem, and the location of the U.S. embassy in Israel, and the lack of understanding of the complexities of the ongoing peace talks.