Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ordered the arrest of people involved in the killing of two Israeli soldiers on Thursday in Ramallah, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Friday after meeting with Arafat, reported AFP.
Cook, who is touring the Middle East, said in a Sky television interview "Arafat assured me that he ordered the arrest of some of these involved in that brutal and horrific murder of the Israeli soldiers."
Welcoming the move, Cook said that the way to escape from "this terrible cycle of vendetta and revenge killing is for justice to take its course," according to AFP.
Asked whether Arafat had said he would stop his people getting involved in violence with the Israelis, Cook told BBC Radio news: "I found him very committed to trying to find an end to the confrontation and to the violence.
"I think that the events ... have brought home to the leaders on both sides the need to find a way forward."
Cook said he was pleased that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had exercised a leadership role in the region with US President Bill Clinton in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat to meet.
"I urged Yasser Arafat to accept that invitation. I think that he was more convinced that it would be right for him to attend," said Cook.
He is in the region in an attempt to halt the Israeli-Palestinian confrontations in the West Bank and Gaza, which claimed the lives of more than 100 and injured thousands, reported Reuters.
'If we can get through 24 hours without a major incident, I do believe there is a real prospect of the two (Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak) getting together, and that is what we will continue to urge,' Cook said, according to the agency.
In Amman Thursday, Cook described the Israeli attacks on towns in the Palestinian territories as “a tragedy for the region.” – (Several Sources)
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