When the ground gives way

The much-heralded Arafat-Peres meeting is unlikely to go anywhere, writes Khaled Amayreh from Jerusalem
Israeli police stepped up security precautions against suicide bombers yesterday, a day after a Palestinian blew himself up outside a Jerusalem hospital in an attack that threatened to derail a new European cease-fire drive. Tuesday's bomb blast, which left 15 wounded, overshadowed EU efforts to set up a meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
An Israeli police spokesman said military reinforcements would join in guarding Jerusalem's open-air markets, shopping malls and bus stations, often targetted by bombers in the past.
Palestinian cabinet minister Ziad Abu Zayyad said that in principle the Palestinian Authority opposed attacks that targetted civilians. "But unfortunately it's becoming [a scenario of] continued action and counteraction because of the current situation and because of the continued policy of Israeli occupation," he said.
The fate of the possible Arafat-Peres meeting remained uncertain after EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana wrapped up a visit to the region. Palestinian officials said plans to hold the European-brokered peace talks in Italy at the margins of an economic conference had faltered because Arafat believes the talks need to be carefully prepared to ensure success.
"President Arafat told Solana he will contact him on Sunday to set the time and venue for a meeting with Peres," Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina disclosed yesterday. "The meeting could take place any time after Monday. It is almost certain the meeting will be held in the region." But Abu Rudeina suggested that more efforts would have to be made to narrow the gap between the two sides.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Ereikat said Arafat told Solana he would not attend a business conference near Milan in Italy, where it was thought that a meeting with Peres could be arranged. Another Palestinian official said two possible venues under discussion were Egypt's Red Sea resort of Taba and the Erez border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The Palestinians want the meeting with Peres to kick start implementation of the US-mediated cease- fire, and then move on to peace talks. But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given Peres a mandate to talk only about a cease-fire and a possible loosening of the Israeli stranglehold of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"Prime Minister [Sharon] gave the foreign minister a mandate to conduct talks on easing conditions for the Palestinian population and on ending the violence, and in this sense nothing has changed," Israeli cabinet secretary Gideon Saar told Israel Radio.
Solana, following a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday, said, "I think we are making some headway and I hope very much that the meeting will be possible."
As for Peres, he said late on Tuesday that the two sides might prefer to meet "in a more isolated place" away from television cameras.
But Arafat, speaking in Amman following a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah last Friday, poured cold water on the much-heralded meeting with Peres.
"I have held several meetings with Peres since the beginning of the Intifada and all were to no avail because the Israelis were not willing to stop their aggression and acknowledge Palestinian rights," Arafat said. The Palestinian leader repeated the same remarks in Cairo on Tuesday after meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, saying "the important thing is to make adequate preparations for the meeting to ensure its success."
Disagreements between the two sides over the very purpose of any meeting resurfaced during a previously- unannounced consultation between Peres and Palestinian officials Ahmed Qorei and Sa'eb Ereikat in Jerusalem on Tuesday. The secret talks were ostensibly aimed at paving the way for the meeting but ended without any agreement. Qorei later revealed that Peres had backtracked from earlier commitments to the implementation of the Mitchell report which Palestinians view as essential for stopping the violence and resuming peace talks.
Given that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had already expressed the hope that the Peres-Arafat meeting would never take place, and that he would not, in any case, be bound by any agreement that Peres might conclude with Arafat, the whole issue appeared mired in farce. Affirming his opposition to discussing political issues with the PA now, Sharon reiterated that his mantra remains that "there will be no negotiations under violence and terror."
Sharon, who is paying a three-day low- key visit to Russia, met on Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin, after which the Russian leader told reporters Russia was well-placed to "make a substantial contribution to resolving the situation in the region." Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov revealed Putin had told Sharon the time was not ripe for any new peace initiatives because the blueprint for peace drawn up by the Mitchell Committee was still on the table.
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