Israeli-PLO peace pact on track

September 16, 1995
Web posted at: 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT)

From International Correspondent Walter Rodgers

[peres] GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (CNN) -- PLO Chairman Yassar Arafat said Friday he will meet Israeli's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Egypt Saturday night to work through remaining differences over wider Palestinian self-rule on the West Bank.

Arafat seemed committed to signing a peace agreement at the White House next Thursday. "We have no other alternatives than to continue with the peace process," Arafat said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Abu Ala outlined what lies between the negotiators and the finish line. "It's Hebron; it's detainees and prisoners and the civil spheres," he said.

In Hebron, there were continued clashes between stone- throwing Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, who were under strict orders to avoid confrontation or bloodshed as the peace talks enter the final phase.

Because negotiators have not agreed on security arrangements for Israeli settlers in the predominately Arab city of Hebron, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin seemed much more cautious about next week's meeting with Arafat at the White House. "Only the future will tell," he said.

[rabin] In Israel, this second phase of a peace agreement with the Palestinians has elicited more exhaustion than rejoicing. Still, Peres, the architect of peace, has not lost faith.

"Yesterday at the party meeting one of the members asked me, can you trust the Palestinians?" Peres said. "Do you really believe we can co-exist? There are a million of them who are Israeli citizens and we don't have any problems."

Peres added he is optimistic the remaining problems will be resolved by next week.

If an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is signed in Washington, it will be the U.S. sponsors who do most of the rejoicing. In the United States, little has happened to ease the Palestinian sense of Israeli oppression. Nor have fears of radical Palestinian terrorism been alleviated for average Israelis.

Israeli-PLO peace pact on track

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