Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Monday that a meeting between him and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Tuesday had not been settled yet, Israel Radio reported.
He said that there had been talks on a meeting between the two for Tuesday, but that nothing had been confirmed, according to the radio, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
Peres’s remarks contradicted what two European foreign ministers said that the Israeli minister and the Palestinian leader would meet Tuesday night.
Rome's foreign ministry said late Monday that a meeting between Peres and Arafat have both told Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero they hope to meet Tuesday.
Ruggiero, who spoke to both leaders at an unspecified time on Monday, said the two "had confirmed to him their desire to meet Tuesday somewhere in the Middle East," said the ministry in a statement, cited by AFP.
Also, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique said Monday that Peres and Arafat would meet Tuesday.
"I have just had a conversation with... Peres and he confirmed to me that, unless there are new circumstances and despite the severity of the situation, the meeting will take place tomorrow [Tuesday] night somewhere on the frontier of the [Palestinian] territories and Israel," Pique said in comments carried by Spanish state television.
Peres, meanwhile, told foreign journalists Monday evening that the goal of the meeting was to create greater trust and goodwill between the two sides.
"I do not want to be heard as a threat, but this is an important chance, the goal to achieve a cease-fire so that the 'Mitchell Report train' can leave its first station."
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, advisor to Arafat, said that there was disagreement between the two sides over the site and time for the meeting.
According to Rudeineh, the Palestinians have asked for the meeting to take place in Egypt, while Israel is demanding that it take place at the Erez checkpoint, on the Israel-Gaza border, said Haaretz.
Erez has been the site of previous Israeli-Palestinian meetings, and has areas under Israeli control as well as Palestinian-controlled areas.
According to Peres, the meeting needs to take place without any media presence and in a location that will allow for an immediate return home should the need arise.
Israel Radio quoted an Israeli source as saying that the Palestinians had proposed the meeting take place Tuesday in El Arish, on the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip. The radio reported that Israel had refused the offer as it opposes holding the meeting on Egyptian territory, the paper said.
Israel flatly rejected an offer by Arafat for immediate talks with Peres, Israel Radio reported Monday. The Palestinian Authority had proposed that the two hold talks Monday in Cairo, the radio said.
It said that both the Palestinian offer and the Israeli rejection were a result of three attacks Sunday, in which two suicide bombers and a drive-by gunman left five Israelis dead and more than 80 wounded in separate strikes in Naharia, Beit Lid, and the Jordan Valley – Albawaba.com
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