ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, 3 July — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, held talks yesterday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the deteriorating situation and escalating violence in the region, presidential sources said.
The Saudi leader later held talks with visiting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at Alexandria’s beachside Montazah Palace, accompanied by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal and senior Palestinian ministers Nabil Shaath and Saeb Erekat. Arafat earlier yesterday held separate talks with Mubarak in Alexandria.
Mubarak and the crown prince, who will stay in Egypt for three days, ended their first round of talks without giving any statements to the press. The two men are due to meet again today. Prince Abdullah was due to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, especially a faltering cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians, with the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders.
The US-brokered truce seemed close to collapse after two car bombs exploded near Tel Aviv, Israel assassinated three Islamic activists and gunmen shot dead an Israeli in the West Bank. Arafat said yesterday in Gaza that an Israeli helicopter attack which killed three Palestinians late Sunday was a “flagrant violation” of the cease-fire and “a crime against our people.” Arafat will meet Arab League chief Amr Moussa in Cairo today. On Friday, Prince Abdullah told US Secretary of State Colin Powell that Israel could not expect the Palestinians to guarantee security in their areas if the Israelis kept undermining their efforts.
Palestinian activists set off two car bombs that rocked an Israeli town near Tel Aviv airport yesterday. The incident came the day after Israel killed five Palestinians in the West Bank and launched airstrikes on Syrian targets in Lebanon, drawing sharp criticism from friends and foes alike. “The situation is very difficult. The last events of the last couple of days show how fragile the cease-fire is. All indications are now it will not hold,” Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN’s Mideast envoy, said in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Syria is leaving it up to the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement to respond to Israeli attacks on its troops in Lebanon, in order to avoid what it sees as an Israeli trap aimed at dragging it into war, analysts said in Damascus yesterday. Israeli warplanes on Sunday destroyed a Syrian radar station in eastern Lebanon for the second time since mid-April, wounding two Syrian soldiers, in response to an attack on Israeli troops in the disputed Shebaa Farms.
