Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Monday that peace efforts had to be pursued despite the failure of the marathon peace talks in the Red Sea resort of Taba.
Arafat's came during an interview with Israel's channel two, said Haaretz newspaper.
"The most important thing is we are continuing to talk," Arafat said.
Commenting on the six days of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians which ended Saturday at Taba, falling short of an agreement, Arafat said "we have to respect what they (the delegations) achieved."
Arafat also reaffirmed his belief in the 1993 Oslo peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which paved the way for a Palestinian state, calling it "a huge success for all the Middle East," adding "we have to continue this strategic line."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced Sunday that peace talks would be suspended until the February 6 Israeli election. He was reportedly enraged by Arafat's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he accused Israel of "fascist military aggression."
According to AFP, the Palestinian President took a different tone on Israeli television, saying he respected Jews' right to pray at the Wailing Wall, which lies under al-Haram al-Sharif mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City.
But he stopped short of recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the wall, which Jews consider the last vestige of the second Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
"The Western Wall is the western wall of the Haram al-Sharif," the third holiest site in Islam, said Arafat, "but I completely respect the Wailing Wall."
However, Arafat rejected the Jewish name for the area, saying the term Temple Mount was invented by Christian crusaders during the Middle Ages, Haaretz said.
He addressed the Israeli public regarding the four months of violence which claimed almost 400 lives, mostly Palestinian. "I am asking them (the Israelis) to stop firing. I am not sending the tanks," he said.
Arafat on Monday, meanwhile, held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said AFP.
Arafat informed Mubarak of the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, as well as the talks he held at the World Economic Forum.
Meanwhile, the United States rebuked Arafat for provocative comments he made over the weekend accusing Israel of "fascist military aggression," said the agency.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington understood that both sides were frustrated with the now suspended peace process, but stressed that Arafat's remarks were uncalled for.
"We're quite aware of the frustration on both sides and the outrage of the continuing violence," Boucher told reporters.
"The conditions on the ground are, indeed, bad for both sides," he said. "Nonetheless, statements such as those made by Chairman Arafat really have no place in this process."
On Saturday, Arafat delivered a vitriolic speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he accused Israel of using "fascist military aggression" during more than four months of violence that has wracked the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Boucher said the United States, despite its new less active role in the peace process under President George W. Bush, was pleased that at least some headway had been made during the six days of talks, the agency added.
"We're glad to see that ... there was progress between the parties at Taba," he said.
Meanwhile, a senior State Department official said Secretary of State Colin Powell was to meet in Washington Tuesday with his Jordanian counterpart, Abdel Ilah Khatib, in part to discuss the peace process.
Powell spoke twice with Barak and once with Arafat last week but the meeting with Khatib was to be his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign official from the region.
In addition to the peace process, Powell and Khatib were expected to discuss US aid to Jordan, the official said.
Last week, Jordan's King Abdullah II and US President George W. Bush pledged in a phone call to cooperate to promote the peace effort, said the agency -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
