Sharon to meet Qorei soon
2003-11-03 15:41
Moscow - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may meet his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qorei "within days," an official with the Israeli delegation in Russia told AFP on Monday.
"The prime minister thinks a meeting is possible within the next few days with Ahmed Qorei," an official who asked not to be named told AFP.
"Contacts have been established ahead of such a meeting, but we have to wait and see if Abu Alaa (Qorei) succeeds in forming his new government and how things evolve," the official said.
The meeting would be the first between Sharon and Qorei as Palestinian prime minister.
Qorei, the former speaker of parliament, was sworn in by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as the head of a one-month emergency cabinet on October 7, and on October 28 he indicated that he would stay on in the post.
Sharon was on Monday due to meet with President Vladimir Putin to try and convince Russia to drop efforts to turn the Middle East "roadmap" into a binding UN resolution.
Russia is part of the diplomatic "quartet" including the European Union, United Nations and the United States, which drew up the "roadmap" designed to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The roadmap sees the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel by 2005.