Peres, Arafat to meet, U.N. chief says

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

By Christiane Amanpour
CNN Chief International Correspondent

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will meet with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to "consolidate and facilitate the cease-fire," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

During an interview with CNN in London on Monday evening, Annan said it was his suggestion that the two leaders remain in contact at a "high political level."

"Today the only contact that they have directly is with the military and security people at the security coordination meetings which is chaired by the U.S. But, I have never seen any cease-fire which is agreed to and implemented in a political vacuum," said Annan.

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"And, they need to have senior politicians or diplomats who are engaged, so that if there is a problem at the technical level, they have someone to talk to and with a contact on the other side, they can resolve it very quickly before it gets out of hand. I've been told this morning, today, that they seem to have settled it and there are expectations that there will be such a meeting."

Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority could immediately confirm that such a meeting was scheduled to take place.

Israel Radio reported on Tuesday that senior Israeli officials had said that the Palestinian Authority is not honoring the terms of the truce negotiated by U.S. CIA Director George Tenet, and that the truce was being reassessed.

However, Israel Radio also quoted Israeli officials who said that no change was expected in Israel's stance until after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with U.S. President George W. Bush next week in Washington.

Annan said that Sharon opposes negotiations until the violence stops but agreed with Annan to let the Peres-Arafat contacts go forward with the idea that the meeting "will be to consolidate and facilitate the cease-fire."

The secretary-general said he told Sharon he thought it unlikely there would be a complete cessation of the violence and hoped that the Israeli leader would go forward with the Mitchell report recommendations if the cease-fire was generally being honored. (More on Mitchell report)

The report, issued by a five-man, independent, international committee headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, investigated the Israeli-Palestinian violence and offered an outline on how peace talks might eventually resume.

The latest Mideast death reported Tuesday morning was of a 15-year-old Israeli girl who died of wounds she suffered in a Palestinian suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv disco on June 1.

Yevgenia Dorfman's death brought the total number killed by the bomber to 21. He also died in the blast. (More on the violence)