JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel is holding high-level contacts with Palestinian officials despite its decision to sever ties with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Israeli sources said Tuesday.
``There are contacts under way at different levels and varying degrees of intensity,'' an Israeli Foreign Ministry source said. ``There is no decision by the government against meeting the Palestinians or talking to them.''
Another senior Israeli political source said the contacts that have taken place since the cabinet decision last week involved senior officials, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
``They aren't talking with Arafat. The prime minister doesn't want Arafat involved but he doesn't mind if they talk to the others,'' the political source said. The two ministers were not immediately available to comment but Peres has said he is still in contact with Palestinian officials without giving any details.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet declared Arafat ``irrelevant'' after militants linked to the Palestinian leader's Fatah faction killed 10 Israelis, many of them Jewish settlers, in an ambush on a bus in the West Bank on December 12.
The cabinet said the Palestinian leader had not fulfilled pledges to crack down on militant groups, despite intense pressure after a surge in nearly 15 months of violence.
It has not specified publicly what, if any, contacts will continue with Palestinian leaders.
Israeli political analysts have said any Palestinian official in contact with Israeli officials was likely to report back to Arafat.
Sharon is expected to meet Peres Wednesday to coordinate their diplomatic outlook. Peres opposed the decision to brand Arafat irrelevant and launch retaliatory Israeli air strikes.
Peres, an architect of interim peace deals with the Palestinians, has frequently warned Sharon that breaking off dialogue and combating the Palestinian uprising by military means alone would be disastrous for both sides.
The Israeli sources said there had been contacts between Peres and Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. Ben-Eliezer had spoken to Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian Preventive Security chief in the West Bank, they said.
They said the talks focused on finding a way out of the armed conflict that erupted in September 2000 shortly after peace talks stalled.