Official: Arafat may not be able to attend Arab Summit in Tunis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 04, 2004

Official: Arafat may not be able to attend Arab Summit in Tunis

Palestinian Minister of Communications and IT Azzam Al-Ahmad stated on Wednesday that leader Yasser Arafat would not be able to attend the Arab summit due to take place in Tunis.

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Palestinian Minister of Communications and IT Azzam Al-Ahmad stated on Wednesday that leader Yasser Arafat would not be able to attend the Arab summit due to take place in Tunis.

The Tunisian president, whose country is to host the Arab summiton March 28 and 29, had formally invited Arafat to participate in the summit.

Al-Ahmad, meanwhile, told reporters "I doubt that President Arafat would be able to participate in the Arab summit because Israel is still determined to impose siege on him."

Al-Ahmad also said that the Fatah movement's Revolutionary Council had called during its last meeting on all the Arab countries and the Quartet Committee to intervene and allow Arafat to attend the summit, due to the importance of Arafat's participation since the summit is due to discuss mechanisms of implementing the Arab peace initiatives.

Al-Ahmad voiced hope that Israel would reconsider its policies and the sanctions imposed on Arafat, where Israel has been besieging him at his Ramallah headquarters since April 2002.

However, Al-Ahmad doubted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's intention to implement his unilateral plans of evacuating 17 Jewishsettlements from the Gaza Strip and 10 settlements from the West Bank.

"Sharon is talking about evacuating caravans not Jewish settlements," Al-Ahmad said, adding "by presenting this plan Sharonhad succeeded in diverting the attention of many countries as well as the quartet to him."

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