Sharon, Arafat exchange flurry of back-channel overtures

RAMALLAH — Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat are planning a leadership summit.

Sharon — who leaves for the United States on March 19 — has pledged not to meet Arafat or renew peace talks with the Palestinians until the mini-war ends. But Palestinian sources said Arafat and Sharon have already exchanged a series of messages to arrange a meeting and renew peace talks in exchange for a reduction in violence, Middle East Newsline reported.

The sources said Sharon has expressed readiness to renew peace talks. But the prime minister wants such negotiations to begin without preconditions or a time frame. Arafat is said to have rejected this and demands that the talks resume where they left off under the previous administration of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Palestinian sources said the United States is pressing Israel to agree to a meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. They said such a meeting could take place after the Arab League summit on March 27.

Israeli sources said Sharon will first send his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, to meet Arafat. Later, Sharon might agree to meet the Palestinian leader.

The London-based Al Hayat daily reported that Israel and the PA have established two secret negotiating channels. One is to end the mini-war and the other is to discuss a peace settlement.

On Saturday, Arafat told the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza that he is ready to renew talks with Israel. He dismissed Israeli assertions that he wasted an opportunity to sign a peace accord with the Barak administration.

"We did not save any efforts to achieve peace," Arafat said. "We used every possible chance in order to achieve peace but we were always facing offers that were unacceptable to Palestinians, Arabs, Christians and Muslims. Let's implement all the obligations that have come about as a result of negotiations, and to resume the final status talks, from the point which had been reached, the important understanding, in Camp David, Sharm e-Sheik and Taba. This is the only logical way to achieve complete security formula, and concrete political principles for the coming agreements."

Over the weekend, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen clashed throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer came under fire during a tour of Israeli military positions in Gaza.