Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is urging Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to join him at a summit proposed by US President Bill Clinton on Tuesday in a bid to end the tide of violence across the Palestinian territories, a close aide said Sunday.
"The prime minister said specifically that he calls on Arafat to accept President Clinton's invitation to meet in Washington or some other place following Yom Kippur on Tuesday," cabinet secretary Yitzhak Herzog told reporters.
"We are now waiting to see what type of proposals they (the Americans) are discussing," he added. "We never reject ideas of this nature and we are waiting to see what is being cooked and proposed to the parties."
Barak has given Arafat a 48-hour deadline that expires after Yom Kippur on Monday evening, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, to halt the violence or Israel will consider the peace process dead.
He has put the blame for the unrest that has left some 90 people dead over 11 days squarely at Arafat's feet.
"Apparently there is no partner for peace," Barak said Saturday.
The Haaretz newspaper reported this week after the failure of a summit in Paris to bring about an end to the violence that the United States was working on bridging proposals on an outline final status accord.
The two sides missed a September 13 deadline for a final and comprehensive accord after the collapse of the Camp David peace summit in July over the fate of Jerusalem - JERUSALEM (AFP)
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