Britain's Tony Blair and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat launched a new Middle East peace push Monday, calling for a resumption of negotiations with Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state, said reports.
Speaking after over an hour of talks in London with the prime minister, Arafat urged the Israeli government to join the negotiations "so we can reach a just and lasting solution to all issues on the agenda."
"We both recognize that this is a time to act with new resolve," Blair said at a joint press conference with Arafat, quoted by AFP.
He urged a "just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side... putting behind them the bitterness of the past."
The two leaders met at Downing Street amid fresh diplomatic efforts to push the Middle East peace process forward and, at the same time, soothe Arab fears over the US-led bombing of Afghanistan in response to the attacks in New York and Washington.
London and Washington recognize that damping down - if not resolving - the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is vital to maintaining the coalition backing action in Afghanistan, said the agency.
Arab leaders have repeatedly said that the Mideast conflict is a fertile soil for terrorism, and that the fight against the problem must deal with its root causes.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Israeli TV Sunday that a Palestinian state was the best scenario as far as Israeli security was concerned.
Blair said he wanted to see the creation of a "viable" Palestinian state co-existing alongside Israel.
"Too many innocent Palestinians, and innocent Israelis, have died in recent months and years," he added.
"We have a chance to put right the injustices that have for far too long blighted our world and the Middle East in particular."
Arafat, for his part, restated his condemnation of the September 11 attacks in the United States, adding: "We are against all forms of terrorism including state-sponsored terrorism."
Arabs and Palestinians accuse the Jewish state of organized terrorism against the Palestinians, while Israel says its use of force to maintain a 34-year military occupation of conquered Palestinian land is a form of combating “terrorism.”
Arafat has supported the attacks on Afghanistan, and in a tacit quid pro quo, Britain and the United States have expressed their backing for a Palestinian state.
Last week, US President George W. Bush gave his strongest support yet to the creation of a Palestinian state, provided that Israel’s right to exist is recognized.
Arafat said the Palestinians' "just" cause could not be linked with unjust "objectives" and "methods" such as the September 11 attacks.
"There can be no mix between our just cause and objectives and methods that are not just," he added.
Arafat, who was in London at Blair's invitation, went later to meet Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, before traveling on to Dublin for talks with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
PERES TO VISIT US FOR UPDATE ON AMERICAN PEACE PLAN
The Tel Aviv-based Haaretz daily reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was to travel next week to the United States for talks with senior administration officials, for updates on their plans for increased involvement in the Middle East and to tighten the coordination between the two countries.
Peres has not visited the United States for several months, and he has been criticized by the foreign ministry for not paying enough attention to relations with Washington, said the paper.
It added that Peres would join a long procession of Israeli emissaries scheduled to visit the United States next week, including ministers Dan Meridor and Natan Sharansky, National Security Advisor Uzi Dayan and the prime minister's personal envoy, former ambassador to the United States Zalman Shoval.
Bush is to determine soon the new US policy in the Middle East, and he will decide when to publish the speech by Secretary of State Colin Powell on the US regional policy. Bush is also to decide when a special envoy will visit the region – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
