Israeli prime Minister Ehud Barak is "fed up" with Yasser Arafat and believes the Palestinian leader is not ready for peace, a spokesman for Barak said here Monday, reported (AFP)
"Personal relationships play an important role in diplomacy," the spokesman, Nahman Shai, said, "and I have the feeling that Barak is fed up with Arafat.
"One day there will be another (Palestinian) leader ready to make peace with Israel," he told reporters. "The assessment on our side is that he (Arafat) is not ready for peace."
Shai spoke to journalists after Barak arrived in this Red Sea diving resort for a last-ditch summit to salvage the shattered Middle East peace process.
In a series of bilateral talks before the summit opens at midday (1000 GMT), Barak spoke with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and was scheduled to meet US President Bill Clinton, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Barak told his cabinet Sunday he felt the peace process was "at the end of the line in its current form."
Mean while Barak’s Spokesman says that Sharm el-Sheikh summit to broker an end to over two weeks of violence between Israel and the Palestinians could last up to two days, an Israeli spokesman said.
"You never know when a meeting of this kind will finish. It could last one day, maybe two, but not longer," Prime Minister Ehud Barak's spokesman Gadi Baltiansky told Israeli army radio – (AFP)
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