Mubarak, Arafat Confer on Peace Process in Wake of Ship Hijacking

Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for more than four hours Tuesday to discuss the future of the Mideast peace process and the Palestinian role in such efforts.

The hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro by four Palestinians and other recent events have seriously strained PLO relations with Jordan and Egypt.

Arafat’s visit was depicted here as a fence-mending mission to assuage Egyptian anger over the PLO’s conduct during events that surrounded the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front, a PLO faction loyal to Arafat.

As in Jordan, where he met with King Hussein last week, “Arafat will have a lot of explaining to do,” a senior Egyptian source said.

Mubarak was expected to add his pressure to Hussein’s in an effort to convince Arafat to reorient the PLO away from terrorism and prove that he is “really keen on being a party to the peace process,” a Foreign Ministry source said.

Mubarak and Arafat met privately for two hours before being joined by aides for an equally long session that continued over lunch. Officials said the talks will continue today and might stretch into Thursday, indicating that substantive discussions are taking place.

After their first session at Kubbeh Palace, Mubarak and Arafat embraced for the cameras but made no statements to reporters. Senior PLO officials likewise were unavailable after the meeting.

However, Osama Baz, Mubarak’s chief foreign policy adviser, later called the talks “constructive and fruitful,” adding that “we reviewed all the issues,” and “both leaders were satisfied” with the outcome. Baz added that he expects positive results from the meetings but cannot be more specific until after the talks have concluded. Mubarak, like Hussein, is understood to be angry with Arafat because of the Achille Lauro incident, which both Jordan and Egypt view as a major setback for Mideast peace efforts. While Egyptian officials accept Arafat’s assurances that he neither knew nor approved of the hijacking beforehand, they have acknowledged that such terrorist incidents pose a serious obstacle to efforts.