JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres joined European Union officials for an informal gathering in Brussels amid signs Israel was trying to sideline Arafat closer to home.``There were no negotiations and no decisions,'' an Israeli source said after the meeting which Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt hosted at his residence late on Monday.
Neither Peres nor Arafat, in the Belgian capital for a EU-Mediterranean conference, spoke to reporters afterwards.
Peres and Arafat last met, but did not hold talks, at a Middle East economic conference on the Spanish holiday island of Majorca over the weekend.
SHARON SIDELINES ARAFAT
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was quoted in a Newsweek interview published on Sunday as saying Arafat could not be a negotiating partner at present, appeared in remarks on Monday to be trying to push him further to the sidelines.
He spoke after Israeli tanks withdrew from the West Bank city of Qalqilya, the latest pullout in what Israel has said will be a gradual move out of Palestinian areas reoccupied after the October 17 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.
Speaking to legislators from his Likud party, Sharon pointedly noted that Israel's pullbacks so far, from Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Beit Jala, had not been negotiated with Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
``We coordinated with local commanders. In Qalqilya it was coordination between the Israeli and Palestinian brigade commanders,'' Sharon said.Sharon said in broadcast remarks on Monday the occupation army had achieved its goals in the push into Palestinian territory and would leave once security was ensured.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Israeli tanks rumbled into the West Bank city of Tulkarm on November 5, 2001, but withdrew from nearby Qalqilya under pressure from the United States, anxious to keep Muslim states inside its anti-terror alliance. A Reuters correspondent saw five tanks enter the Palestinian city of Tulkarm, close to the border with Israel, and said at least one Palestinian was hurt in a gun battle with Israeli troops. The army gave no immediate reason for the advance. (Michael Sales/Reuters Graphic)