Ceasefire talks between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat may be held after the latter meets with Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday, according to an Arafat aide.
The talks could be held any time "after Sunday," Nabil Abu Rudeineh told AFP.
Rudeineh’s remarks came as Israel intensified security in Jerusalem to prevent further suicide bomb attacks, and attacked a Palestinian base in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding a member of the Force 17 presidential guards.
EU foreign policy chief Javeir Solana earlier said that he hoped Peres would meet with Arafat "in the near future."
A Palestinian source who asked not to be named told AFP another such meeting could take place Wednesday evening in occupied Jerusalem.
"I think we need more preparation for the next Arafat-Peres meeting. We want this meeting to be successful. We don't want a meeting only for the sake of a meeting. We want results," he said.
On Wednesday, security was beefed up in and around Jerusalem following Tuesday's suicide attack which killed the bomber and wounded 13 people in west Jerusalem, and another two blasts Monday in Jewish settler districts of occupied east Jerusalem.
"This is the most additional security we have ever had," Jerusalem police spokesman Kobi Zrihan told AFP.
"Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer ordered the deployment of 1,000 extra soldiers" across the city to patrol the streets, protect sensitive areas and set up roadblocks on the edge of town, he said.
Defense ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikai told Haaretz newspaper that Israel had "tightened security on the outskirts of the city to prevent penetrations from the West Bank."
The army said in a statement that the strike on the Force 17 base in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun was in retaliation for a Palestinian mortar attack earlier in the day on the Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip, which caused no injuries.
An Israeli official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's delegation currently visiting Moscow announced that Israel would soon build two flyovers in the Gaza Strip to allow Jewish settlers and Palestinians to drive along different routes.
"The construction of the two structures is part of measures taken by the government to make life easier for Palestinian inhabitants," the top official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Some 6,500 Israeli settlers occupy around 15 percent of the Gaza Strip, among a hostile and poor population of around one million Palestinians, and drive-by shootings are frequent. The Israelis' presence is illegal under international laws that bar "settlement" of conquered land.
Sharon won a sympathetic ear in Moscow in the wake of the suicide bombing, as Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned terrorism and promised efforts to end the Middle East violence.
Russia "is watching with alarm what is happening" in the Middle East, "especially considering that a large part of Israeli citizens come from the former Soviet Union and Russia," said Putin.
In other diplomatic developments, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal arrived Wednesday in Jordan for talks with King Abdullah on ways of containing the "unrest."
"Enough is enough," said the prince, who added it was "time especially for the United States to carry its own responsibilities to prevent the aggression of the Israelis." - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
