Former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres has said that there was a basis to implement the Sharm el Sheikh accord between the Israel and the Palestinians, according to the Israeli radio.
Peres, whose meet with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the latter’s office in Gaza ended at midnight Wednesday, with a positive impression on the part of Peres, according to the radio, quoting unnamed Israeli sources.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had said earlier after the end of a security cabinet meeting that Peres’s mission was not to negotiate with Arafat, but to tell him to stop “Palestinian violence.” Barak threatened of “serious measures against the Palestinians if the violence does not stop.
"... He will tell Arafat that the violence cannot continue and that the Palestinians must end the violence immediately," Barak said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
A Palestinian official told AFP the meeting which started at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) in Arafat's office in Gaza City ended around midnight (2200 GMT).
Neither man spoke after the meeting and Peres left for Israel, said the agency.
Asked if Peres, currently regional cooperation minister, would be negotiating with Arafat, Barak said clearly: "No."
Barak declared a time-out in the peace talks with the Palestinians 10 days ago because of the running street battles in the Palestinian territories – (Several Sources)
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