Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will meet Saturday with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Egypt to discuss the Middle East crisis, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday, cited by AFP.
Arafat will travel to Egypt on Friday night following his participation in a meeting with ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in South Africa, Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath said.
Shaath arrived Wednesday night in Cairo after a European tour which took him to France, Italy, Belgium, England and Spain, where he met top diplomats to discuss the Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative, reported Al Ahram daily.
"I will inform the Egyptians about the positive change I observed in the European position," he said.
Shaath told Cairo Radio that the “coming days will witness a stronger European role in the Middle East peace process, by supporting the Jordanian-Egyptian peace plan and providing protection for the Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, Shaath denied that Palestinians and Israelis were holding secret talks, said the paper, citing him as telling the radio station.
Shaath was referring to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres’s announcement last month that the two sides were holding secret talks to restore peace in the region.
“These are new lies to improve the image of Tel Aviv in the world,” Shaath told the radio station – Albawaba.com
