Arafat still has part to play
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has rejected calls from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to desist from talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
During talks with Israeli President Ariel Sharon in London yesterday, Mr Straw said Britain and European governments would deal with Mr Arafat “as we see fit.”
The Israeli PM considers the leader of the Palestinian Authority a destabilising influence on the successful roll out of the US-backed ‘road map’ for peace in the Middle East.
Mr Sharon wants Mr Arafat’s funding to be cut off.
Mr Sharon favours closer cooperation with the newly-elected Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
But the British government said it would continue to have dialogue with the democratically elected leader.
An official said: “The foreign secretary made clear our position, as with the rest of the EU, is that Arafat is the democratically elected president of the Palestinian Authority and we will continue to have dealings with him as we see fit.”
Mr Sharon told a Norwegian daily ahead of the meeting in London: “Europe is maintaining contact with Yasser Arafat, meeting him, ringing him, and in this way is delaying a solution to the problems here in the Middle East.”
The Palestinian government was discouraged by this and said the call was “provocative.”
Anglo-Israeli ties were put to the test in January this year when Israel prevented Palestinian delegates from attending a conference in London backed by the Foreign Office because Israeli representatives had not been invited.
Mr Sharon was chagrined further when the PM declined to meet with former Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and instead chose to meet Labour leader Amram Mitzna ahead of elections in January.
Mr Sharon, who met the PM for dinner last night at No 10, was jeered by a vocal band of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
However, inside the atmosphere was reportedly more conducive to open discussion. The PM spokesman said of the meeting: “It was a very warm and constructive dinner lasting around two and a half hours..
“The focus was on the Middle East peace process. Both sides restated their commitment to the success of the road map and undertook to continue to work closely together to advance it.
“They also discussed a range of regional and bilateral issues.”
Mr Sharon is pencilled in to meet Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and leaders of the Jewish community during his three-day visit.
It is Mr Sharon’s first visit to Britain in more than a year.
