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Arafat still wants to talk
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GEARING up for the possibility of facing a right-wing Israeli at peace talks, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Monday he would respect the outcome of an Israeli election and continue negotiations.
In a rare interview with Israel Channel Two television, Arafat said that although talks broke down at the weekend with no deal, Israel and the Palestinians had made progress in five days of peace talks at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba.
Asked who he preferred to win the February 6 Israeli election, Prime Minister Ehud Barak or right-winger Ariel Sharon, Arafat said: “I don't interfere in the Israeli business. I respect completely what you are doing."
Sharon has a strong lead in opinion polls.
Arafat said he would also hold peace talks with Sharon, mentioning the two sat around the negotiating table when the Likud party chief was foreign minister in the government of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sharon recently outlined a peace plan far from Palestinian expectations, including handing over only 42 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for a state.
Late on Monday, Arafat arrived in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh to discuss with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the latest developments in the Middle East peace process.
Arafat was expected to consult with Mubarak on the outcome of the six-day Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, a Jewish group has planned to move into a house in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem on Monday evening, a move which may further worsen the already tense relations between Israelis and Palestinians.(SD-Agencies)
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