RAMALLAH, West Bank, 22 August — Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday they were ready to meet to discuss ways to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed.
Arafat, speaking after talks with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, said he was prepared to meet Peres in Berlin “at any moment”. Peres, speaking in Budapest, said he intended to see Arafat “in the near future”.
No date was set and, with Peres already abroad and Arafat due to visit China from tomorrow, next week appeared to be the earliest opportunity for talks.
The United States, traditionally the chief broker in Middle East peacemaking, welcomed the remarks. “There’s an initiative under way and the United States is supportive of any initiative that the parties undertake themselves,” US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Reuters during a trip with President George W. Bush to Independence, Missouri.
Illustrating hurdles facing diplomatic efforts to halt violence, Israeli police said a bomb exploded next to a car near their headquarters in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound district yesterday and a larger device was discovered in the vehicle. No one was hurt in the blast, claimed in a statement issued in Beirut by a Palestinian group calling itself the Popular Army Front Return Battalion.
Fischer has become a mediator as Peres pursues “new ideas” for a phased cease-fire as a prelude to implementing an internationally backed peace plan.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hardened his stand on Jerusalem saying millions of dollars of public money will be invested in projects in occupied East Jerusalem to “restore Israel’s full sovereignty” over the city. He said in a Cabinet statement that the 200 million shekel ($50 million) cash injection is intended to “bring East Jerusalem’s public services up to the same level as West Jerusalem’s” and includes provisions for more than 100 new classrooms.
He also said he had no immediate plans to end the Israeli occupation of Orient House.
