Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes returned from his meeting with Yasir Arafat in Tunis and said the Palestinian leader warned him the Middle East peace negotiations “will be very difficult” to renew unless the deportation crisis is resolved.
The chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization was referring to the 415 Palestinians activists deported by Israel to southern Lebanon last December.
Arafat told Claes he wanted the European Community to play a more active role in the Middle East peace negotiations, Belgian sources said.
“These negotiations began more than one year ago and the result is null,” the PLO leader added.
Claes said he visited Arafat as part of an “information mission” in preparation for Belgium’s chairing the European Community in the second half of this year.
Since the Persian Gulf War, E.C. countries, with the exception of France and Spain, have abstained from any high-level contact with the PLO leader, who was criticized during the war for his support of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Claes already visited Israel and Egypt last December as part of an effort to become more involved in the peace process.
In the meeting with Arafat, Claes insisted on the need for Israel to implement the U.N. Security Council resolutions, regarding the Palestinians deported by Israel.
“We must work to implement the U.N. resolutions,” Claes said, hinting that a “compromise acceptable for all the parties can be found.”
Claes told Belgian reporters that he would report on his visit to U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in a meeting in Washington planned for Feb. 16.
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