The Hindu : Arafat urges U.S. to call meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 08, 2002

International

International

Arafat urges U.S. to call meet

RAMALLAH (West Bank) JUNE 7. The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, asked the United States on Friday to convene a West Asia peace conference as quickly as possible, while Israeli tanks raided Jenin, hometown of the latest Palestinian suicide bomber.

Opinion polls, meanwhile, indicated that both Israelis and Palestinians oppose a Saudi Arabian peace plan that calls for Israel to withdraw from the territories it captured in the 1967 war in exchange for peaceful relations with the Arab world.

The Arab plan is one of several ideas to be discussed at a West Asia crisis conference in Turkey next month.

U.S. officials are developing a number of options for the President, George W. Bush, to consider, including proposing a time-table for peace talks and perhaps even some solutions to the thorniest political issues.

As part of consultations, Mr. Bush was to meet with the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, later on Friday and with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, on Monday. Mr. Arafat, whose West Bank compound was pounded by Israeli troops on Thursday, called for quick action regarding the conference. ``I am telling Bush and Mubarak to accelerate their efforts to save this peace process before it collapses''..

— AP, PTI

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