P.L.0., Egypt leaders confer

Press, 23 November 1988, Page 10

P.L.0., Egypt leaders confer

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Egypt and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (P.L.0.) are meeting in Cairo to chart a joint approach to Middle East peace, just a week after the declaration of an independent Palestinian State.

The P.L.O. leader, Yasser Arafat, and top aides would confer with the Foreign Minister, Esmat Abdel-Maguid, to work out their position, said Kamal, the P.L.O.’s representative in Cairo. The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, who met Mr Arafat for three hours yesterday, called on all sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict to make concessions and to convene an international Middle East

peace conference. But Messrs Mubarak and Arafat differed over Washington’s response to the declaration of Palestinian statehood at a meeting of the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.) in Algiers last Tuesday. Mr Mubarak, a close United States ally, said he was confident Washington would exert “maximum efforts to find a peaceful solution” to the Middle East problem.

But Mr Arafat said he was disappointed at Washington’s lack of a positive response, despite the P.N.C.’s approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, with its implicit recognition of Israel.