U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney said Tuesday he would be prepared to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat once the implementation of the Tenet truce plan had begun.
Cheney, who made these comments at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said that if the Tenet plan was being implemented, a meeting between himself and Arafat could take place "rather soon," although he added that no date or locale had been set.
Cheney reiterated U.S. support for a two-state solution to the conflict, saying that Israelis and Palestinians should be able to live alongside one another in "secure boundaries," and that he believed "that visions can be achieved."
For his part, Sharon said that he would authorize Arafat to travel outside the West Bank city of Ramallah once the Tenet plan went into effect. "I have told the vice president that implementation of Tenet will enable Mr. Arafat to travel to go out" of the territories. Arafat's exit, Sharon added, "is conditional on the implementation of the Tenet decisions."
Asked whether he would allow Arafat to return to Palestinian-controlled areas if he attended the Arab summit in Beirut at the end of the month, Sharon said that if Arafat made inciteful speeches at the summit or if there were terror attacks in his absence, then he would "not rule out any possibility."
Earlier Tuesday, a senior U.S. official said that Cheney had decided not to hold a meeting with Arafat, reported Haaretz.
U.S. officials were quoted as saying that both the daunting logistics of a Cheney-Arafat meeting and the fact that the vice president did not want to be perceived as a mediator in the process, were behind the decision. The officials also said that such a meeting was unlikely to advance a cease-fire.
Hamas
The Palestinian Hamas group claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack in the northern part of the Jordan Valley.
An Israeli officer was killed and three other Israelis were wounded when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire around 2:30 a.m. The incident took place near the Hamam Almalih hot springs not far from an Israeli Paratroop Brigade basic training area.
The two Hamas members, carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, ammunition clips, and fragmentation grenades, were killed during the incident. The two were reportedly residents of nearby Tubas village. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
