Israeli President OKs a Meeting After Arafat Plea

In an apparent attempt to goad Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into meeting with Yasser Arafat, Israeli President Ezer Weizman announced Sunday that he will soon hold a summit of his own with the Palestinian leader.

The outspoken Weizman said his decision came partly in response to an urgent appeal from Arafat: a letter in which the president of the Palestinian Authority outlined his “troubles and problems” and asked Weizman for help in restarting stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Netanyahu has refused to meet with Arafat since his May 29 election as prime minister. Substantive negotiations between the two sides also have been at a standstill since the election, and Arafat has warned, in increasingly urgent tones, that the peace process must progress soon or die.

Although Israel Radio reported Sunday that Netanyahu will meet with Arafat in the coming weeks, the prime minister said again that he has no plans for such a meeting.

No date has been set for the talks between Arafat and Weizman, but the Israeli president said they will take place at his private home in the northern town of Caesarea, not his official residence in politically sensitive Jerusalem. Israel Radio reported that the meeting will be held within two weeks.

The announcement was made Sunday at a news conference called hastily by Weizman and Netanyahu hours after an Israeli newspaper reported that the president had threatened to go forward with the meeting with or without the prime minister’s approval.

Both men denied Sunday that an ultimatum had been issued.

Weizman serves in a largely ceremonial post as president. But he has frequently used his role to vent his opinions, most recently when he urged a halt to peace talks with the Palestinians after a series of suicide bombings in Israel in February and March.

On Sunday, Weizman said he agreed to Arafat’s request because of the Palestinian leader’s “distress” about the peace process and because of his political achievements.

“When such a leader--who is my neighbor and who actually resides among us and who has achieved so much--is asking to see me, I believe I ought to meet his request,” Weizman said.

Nissim Zvilli, an opposition member of the Israeli parliament, said he welcomed news of the meeting but regretted that the Netanyahu government could not make such progress on its own.

“I am in favor of this initiative but very sorry that our government needs this kind of pressure to move ahead on this important issue,” said Zvilli, the general secretary of the opposition Labor Party.

There was no immediate response from Arafat to Weizman’s announcement.

But Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Cabinet minister who was recently appointed to head his side’s negotiating team, said the initiative was the result of Arafat’s “continuing effort to salvage the peace process.”

Erekat said the Palestinians are struggling “to engage with this new Israeli government. We need to continue the negotiations and make peace with Israel. If this [meeting] helps that, then it is a positive thing.”

Meanwhile, Israel Radio reported Sunday that three disputed Palestinian offices in mostly Arab East Jerusalem had been shut down, possibly clearing the way for a resumption of negotiations between the two sides.

Erekat and other senior Palestinian officials declined to confirm or deny the reports. Netanyahu has said the offices must be closed before further progress can be made on implementing the interim peace accords.