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Mideast violence flares
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NEW violence flared in the Gaza Strip yesterday as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat sped to Washington for talks with President Clinton, despite Israeli doubts that a Middle East peace deal is imminent.
A day after a car bomb wounded more than 40 people in the central Israeli city of Netanya, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian farmer following another bomb explosion which wounded an Israeli soldier at a nearby Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
The bloodshed added urgency to the Washington talks, which could determine the fate of Clinton's bid to end 52 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and three months of fighting in which more than 350 people have been killed.
Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in a radio interview that he doubted a peace deal could be forged before Clinton's presidency ends on January 20, Israel Radio reported yesterday.
A US peace blueprint has also drawn strong Palestinian reservations. Palestinian officials said Arafat was expected to meet Clinton at 2pm Washington time on Tuesday to discuss the proposals.
“President Arafat spoke by telephone with President Clinton for one hour and it was decided that President Arafat would make an urgent visit to Washington to meet with him in order to get a response to the questions raised by the Palestinian side,” Arafat's aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA late on Monday.
Barak said he would consider sending representatives to Washington should there be a halt to “terrorism” and a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian security co-operation. He said Israel was concentrating for now on battling the violence.(SD-Agencies)
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