Palestinian President Yasser Arafat late Tuesday gave his "qualified acceptance" to a Middle East peace plan presented by US President Bill Clinton, a source close to the talks told AFP.
In two meetings at the White House, "Arafat presented our position in a positive way," the PLO's representative in Washington Hassan Abdel-Rahman told The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
The approval was received by President Clinton, and it is now up to Mr. Barak, Rahman said.
According to the paper, there was no immediate reaction from Clinton administration officials, who gave no indication after the talks ended near midnight Tuesday that the huge gaps between Arafat's position on key issues, and Clinton's outline had been bridged.
But White House spokesman Jake Siewert told reporters at the windup that Clinton had clarified his proposals in more than three hours of meetings with Arafat, according to the paper.
Barak said earlier Tuesday that with the violence persisting, he was shifting his attention from the Clinton outline, which he had accepted last week, conditioned on Arafat's approval, to guarding Israel's security against attacks, said the paper.
Arab diplomats in Washington earlier told Albawaba.com that Arafat would be inclined to accept the broad principles of the Clinton plan but fears Israel may not abide by them. US press reports said Arafat asked Clinton for guarantees that Israel would honor any agreement even if Ariel Sharon wins the elections in February.
Such guarantees would include a UN Security Council resolution that would pressure Israel to abide by an agreement regardless of who wins the elections, they said.
A White House sources told Albawaba.com that the decision to invite Arafat to the White House was made by President Clinton who overruled his Middle East advisers. Clinton was accompanied at the meeting by his senior Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross, and the president's special assistant for Arab-Israeli affairs on the National Security Council, Robert Malley, sources told Albawaba.com.
Arafat was accompanied to the first session with two top aides, Saeb Erekat and Nabil Abu Rdaineh.
According to sources in Washington, Arafat's inner circle is described as divided over the American proposal, with Abu Mazen leaning more in favor of accepting them as a basis for serious talks than some others.
Arafat made no statement as he left the White House and got into his waiting limousine following the 90-minute afternoon meeting.
Shortly after Arafat arrived in Washington, Palestinian negotiators circulated a point-by-point critique that posed big hurdles to an agreement.
The Palestinian objections were made public by the Palestinian Authority in a position paper distributed to foreign consulates in Jerusalem on Monday and posted on the Authority's Web site on Tuesday.
Titled "Remarks and Questions from the Palestinian Negotiating Team Regarding the United States Proposal," the paper outlines a series of specific questions concerning territory on the West Bank and Jerusalem, the right of Palestinian refugees to return and security arrangements between Israel and a future Palestinian state -- Albawaba.com
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