Arafat, Dahlan settle disputes over telephone: official

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former minister of interior security Mohamed Dahlan solved theirdisputes in a telephone conversation, a senior Palestinian official said Sunday.

Colonel Samir Mashharawi, who leads reforms and end ofcorruption in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Fatahmovement, said that it has been agreed to arrange a meeting betweenthe two.

However, he said that a date for the meeting hasn't been setyet, but Palestinian sources close to Dahlan said that Dahlan whois visiting Jordan may meet with Arafat in Ramallah on Monday.Mashharawi, who is a senior Fatah leader, welcomed the idea ofholding a meeting between Arafat and Dahlan, adding that agreeingon the meeting came in the aftermath of their conversation overtelephone two days ago.

"The atmosphere of the conversation between President Arafat andbrother Mohamed Dahlan was extremely encouraging, and accepting tomeet was agreed by both who encouraged it," said Mashharawi.Meanwhile, Mashharawi expressed his support to redeployingPalestinian police patrols with their arms and their uniform in theWest Bank.

However he slammed the Israeli government for asking for thenames of the Palestinian police officers who would be armed andwould be participating in the police patrol.

Source: Xinhua