JEDDAH, Jerusalem, (Islamweb & Agencies) -Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat sought Saudi support Sunday for an Arab mini-summit on the Middle East conflict, an Arab diplomatic source in Jeddah said.
According to the source the question will be raised in talks which Mr. Arafat will have with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Monday.
He gave no details of who would take part in a restricted summit. After Saudi Arabia, Arafat is to travel on to the United Arab Emirates on Monday. The Palestinian leader arrived from the Jordanian capital with international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath and chief peace negotiator Saeb Erakat in his delegation.
Arafat flew in to the Red Sea city of Jeddah and met Saudi King Fahd to discuss the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.
The Palestinian ambassador to Riyadh said they also held talks on "the means to pressure the United States to implement the decision of the G8 summit," backing the deployment of observers in the Palestinian territories.
In Jerusalem, Israel on Monday toyed with a formula to let the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency oversee a truce with the Palestinians after Group of Eight leaders urged Israel to allow in monitors to prevent more bloodshed.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres suggested Israel might agree to CIA monitors to oversee a truce drawn up by the intelligence agency's Director George Tenet last month, along with an internationally-backed framework for renewing peace talks. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told right-wing Likud party critics in a party meeting on Sunday that he would not agree to the deployment of ``observers,''.
Meanwhile, Israel heightened a security alert at the start of its work week on Sunday, fearing Palestinian Resistance men will try to avenge the killing by Israeli settlers of three Palestinians, including a three-month-old baby. (Read photo caption below).
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation soldiers killed a Palestinian hours after the Group of Eight summit in Genoa called for outside observers to be dispatched to the region.
Palestinian security sources said the 48-year-old man was killed when an Israeli tank shell hit his home.
In a recent development, Israeli helicopters attacked the home of a leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas late Sunday in Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to witnesses, the raid targetted Ibrahim Jaber, one of the Hamas leaders for the Jenin area, although he was not there at the time of the attack when the house was empty. In a related development, Sharon told the Likud party meeting that his occupation forces would conduct pin-point operations against Palestinian resistance activists admitting that they had already conducted targeted killings of a number of activists preparing attacks.
The Palestinians say Israel has killed some 40 activists -- in missile strikes, booby-trapped bombings, sniper strikes and helicopter gunship attacks -- since they erupted in revolt against Israeli occupation last September in the wake of stalled peace negotiations.
Meanwhile, the occupation army reported a Jewish settler car and a settlement in the West Bank came under Palestinian fire late on Sunday and Palestinians fired at occupation troops in the West Bank and in several parts of the Gaza Strip late on Sunday.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Israeli occupation soldiers search the car of a Palestinian driver at a check-point in the West Bank town of Bethlehem July 22, 2001. Israel heightened a security alert at the start of the work week, fearing Palestinian Resistance men will try to avenge the killing by Israeli gunmen of three Palestinians, including a three-month-old baby. (Natalie Behring/Reuters)