Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on next week's Arab summit to take decisions that would confront Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and Jerusalem, said reports.
Arafat was speaking to the official Qatar News Agency on arrival in Doha late on Monday as part of a regional tour to rally support before the March 27-28 summit in Amman, said Reuters.
Arafat said Jerusalem was "not only a Palestinian cause but a Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and Christian cause."
Earlier in the day, Arafat held talks in Sanaa with Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, reported the official SABA news agency.
Talks "covered recent developments on the Palestinian scene and ways of supporting the Palestinian people and achieving the lifting of the blockade imposed on them" by Israel.
The two leaders also discussed issues on the table at the Arab summit, said the agency.
Meanwhile, Haaretz newspaper reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that he had asked Yasser Arafat to act against the violence and to prevent an escalation.
Mubarak spoke to Arafat at the beginning of the week and said he would speak to him again about the issue, said the report.
Peres' conversation with Mubarak was one of a series of calls he made to regional and world leaders to place pressure on Arafat to stop the anti-Israeli attacks, said Haaretz.
The paper added that Peres would visit Cairo in the near future and meet with Mubarak.
"It appears that there is no official date set for such a meeting and it is unlikely that it will take place before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returns from the US," a source said - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
