The World - News from March 7, 1989

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has offered to agree to a cease-fire with the Israelis in southern Lebanon and to visit Israel if Arab governments approve, Kuwaiti newspapers said. He was quoted as saying that Israel is negotiating with his Palestine Liberation Organization for a halt to guerrilla raids operating from southern Lebanon. Israel has said it will not talk to the PLO, which it considers a terrorist organization. In the interview with Kuwaiti dailies, Arafat stressed that the PLO will agree to a truce only if Israel “stops its raids on the region, ends its deportation of Palestinians and stops using arms against the uprising” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.