Arafat Says He’ll Meet With Peres to Resolve Obstacles to New Accord

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said Friday that he will meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Egypt today to try to overcome obstacles to signing an accord next week on wider Palestinian self-rule.

“I am going to meet Peres either in [the Egyptian Red Sea resort of] Taba or Cairo,” Arafat told reporters.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s chief negotiator, Ahmed Korei, said earlier that the talks would be held in the Egyptian capital. But other PLO officials said Peres had objected to the Cairo venue and insisted on Taba.

No Israeli officials were available for comment.

Officials on both sides said they were working toward signing an agreement Thursday at the White House in Washington.

The future of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, has been a main stumbling block in the protracted wrangling between Israel and the PLO.

Israel says it must keep troops in parts of the city to protect more than 400 Jewish settlers living among 120,000 Arabs. The PLO says troops must leave all but the heart of Hebron, where special temporary arrangements could be made to protect the settlers.

Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops in Hebron again Friday at the end of a week of scuffling between Jews and Arabs in the city.

Israel’s top negotiator, Uri Savir, said Peres will present Arafat with a new proposal for Hebron, but he refused to disclose details.

Under the 1993 Israel-PLO peace deal, Israel was to have begun moving soldiers out of populated areas in the West Bank by July, 1994.

Israel, citing security concerns after a string of suicide bombings by Muslim militants, has deferred a withdrawal.