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Peres, Arafat meet on strained note
August 23, 1996
Web posted at: 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (CNN) -- Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's scheduled meeting with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in the West Bank town of Ramallah was delayed Thursday when Israel denied air clearance to the Palestinian leader's helicopters for more than three hours.
Arafat finally met Peres in the evening in the self-ruled Gaza Strip. It was their first meeting since Peres lost Israel's May 29 elections.
Palestinian officials accused right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to stop the Ramallah meeting by keeping Arafat grounded.
In protest, Arafat canceled a separate meeting between Israeli and PLO officials, on civilian affairs, at the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the West Bank.
Successful meeting
Arafat and Peres, main architects of the 1993 PLO-Israel peace deal along with Israel's Yitzhak Rabin, met for about an hour at the Palestinian military coordination headquarters.
They told reporters afterwards they were committed to protecting the peace deal.
Arafat said that they "had had a very important discussion concerning how to protect and to push forward the peace process."
"We made an agreement with the Palestinians, and I feel deeply obliged by every promise made on behalf of the previous government, on behalf of the Israeli people," Peres said. "If you replace rifles with words, words must be respected."
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Arafat says 'peace train' must keep going - June 4, 1996
- Palestinian leader backs Peres - May 26, 1996
- Another historic handshake: Likud meets Arafat - July 23, 1996
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