Arafat accuses Barak of backtracking

GAZA, FEB. 7. The Palestinian President, Mr. Yasser Arafat, has accused the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Barak, of wanting to ``delete'' peace agreements signed with the Palestinians, and said peace talks were at an impasse ``because Israel did not accurately and honestly implement the agreements''.

Speaking to mediapersons in Gaza yesterday on his return from a one-day visit to Egypt, Mr. Arafat said although he signed the Wye II land-for-security agreement with the Israeli leader under a U.S. guarantee to implement it, ``we were surprised that Barak wants to jump on the agreement, delete the agreement and minimize it''.

Mr. Arafat said he noticed during his meeting with Mr. Barak on Thursday that the latter ``wants to delete the last third phase of the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and extend the dates that we had agreed upon.''

Israel and the Palestinians agreed in the Wye II agreement, signed in September last year in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al Sheikh, to effect the signed interim agreements, and to impose deadlines for their implementation.Both sides agreed that on Jan 20 Israel would transfer 6.1 per cent of the occupied West Bank to Palestinian control.Meanwhile, the four-way committee, which held its first meeting in Cairo yesterday in four years, failed to reach an agreement on the return of the hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced in the 1967 West Asia war.

The Palestinian representative at the meet, Mr. Nabil Shaath, said the meeting with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. David Levy, and his counterparts from Egypt and Jordan had failed.

-AFP, DPA

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Section  : International
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