Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher will meet Palestinian minister of international cooperation Nabil Shaath in Cairo on Sunday to discuss efforts to end the upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence, foreign ministry sources told AFP Saturday.
Shaath was due to travel to Cairo Saturday night to discuss the results of Israeli-Palestinian security talks also attended by US peace envoy Anthony Zinni and representatives of the US Central Intelligence Agency, they said.
Israel is demanding that Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority crack down harder on Islamic militants after a wave of suicide bombings last weekend that killed 25 Israelis.
The Palestinians for their part have called for an end to Israel's policy of assassinating militants and the lifting of Israeli sanctions, notably a crippling blockade on the Palestinian territories.
Maher visited Israel and the Palestinian territories this week in an attempt to defuse tensions, but returned to Cairo on Friday saying that his mission "failed to bring about a convergence of our points of view."
Both Shaath and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres are expected at an EU meeting in Brussels on Monday, and each will also be invited to address EU foreign ministers about the crisis in the Middle East.
EU officials have said that it hoped that the two men will also meet face-to-face.
But Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa said Saturday a Peres-Shaath meeting would be "just a meeting for television,” as Peres did not have full authority from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon backing up any verbal commitments he might make, said AFP.
Israeli officials the joint high-level security talks with Palestinians on Friday afternoon in Tel Aviv said that the meeting had been "difficult."
"It was a difficult meeting," said an Israeli official, as quoted by the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz.
"We were firm in raising our contention that the Palestinians are arresting only second- and third-rate terrorists, rather than going for the main culprits."
Palestinian security chiefs briefed Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on the meeting but made no comment on the outcome. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior aide to Arafat, said only that another meeting had been scheduled for Sunday – Albawaba.com
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