Habash to meet with Arafat

The Jordanian weekly al-Najd has said that the political bureau of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine agreed in a meeting held last week in Damascus to a meeting between the front's Secretary-General George Habash and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat shortly in Cairo.

Several political bureau members were reported to oppose such a meeting. The paper quoted a well-informed source as saying that the political bureau listened from its two members who came from the occupied territories, Teiser Quba and Abdul Rahim Mallouh, to a detailed evaluation of conditions in the self-rule territories.

The political bureau positively responded to Arafat's request conveyed by the two men to meet with Habash in Cairo for the first time since signing the Oslo accord. The source added that the front's political bureau set conditions for conducting the meeting.

The meeting is not to be on the ground of Oslo principles. A tripartite meeting is to follow attended by Nayef Hawatme, besides Arafat and Habash.