- Title: GAZA/JERUSALEM: NORWAY'S FOREIGN MINISTER DELIVERS MESSAGE OF PEACE
- Date: 25th August 1999
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (AUGUST 25, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT ARRIVES AT HIS OFFICE 0.16 2. SLV NORWEGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER KNUT VOLLEBAEK ARRIVES AT ARAFAT'S OFFICE 0.27 3. SV ARAFAT AND VOLLEBAEK SEATED/ SHAKE HANDS 0.54 4. SV VOLLEBAEK AND PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT ENTER ROOM 1.06 5. W
- Embargoed: 9th September 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GAZA CITY, GAZA/JERUSALEM
- City:
- Country: Gaza Jerusalem
- Reuters ID: LVACETT8SHJ2XR6ZAF5I2GQBAN25
- Story Text: While Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have
continued their discussions on the implementation of the Wye
River accord, Norway's foreign minister has delivered a
message of Syrian determination to negotiate peace.
Norway's Foreign Minister Knut Vollabaek delivered on
Wednesday (August 25) what he said was a message from Damascus
to Israel affirming Syria's determination to negotiate peace.
"The message that I will be bringing for (Israeli Foreign
Minister David) Levy this afternoon is a message of
determination to go ahead and negotiate in goodwill with the
Israelis," Vollebaek told a news conference in Gaza after
meeting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Vollebaek, who visited Damascus on Tuesday, said Israel's
Prime Minister Ehud Barak had asked him to tell Syrian
President Hafez al-Hassad that Israel was serious about
renewing talks suspended three years ago.
Syria has demanded that Barak, who took office last month,
honour what it calls a pledge made by late Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin to withdraw fully from the Golan Heights,
captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Israeli and Palestinian
delegations continued their talks, hoping to break the
peacemaking deadlock ahead of U.S.Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright's visit to the Middle East next week.
Arafat called on Wednesday for the "accurate"
implementation of the Wye River land-for-security deal.
The agreement, which was signed last October, provides for
a series of reciprocal moves, including an Israeli pullback
from an additional 13 percent of the West Bank in three stages
over 12 weeks.
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