Peres voices hope after talks with Arafat

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres held unscheduled talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Cairo today after assuring the Egyptian president that his government planned no major assault on the Palestinians.

After meeting Arafat for more than an hour, Peres refused to reveal details of their discussions in the presidential palace in Cairo.

He said they talked about the fragile ceasefire declared on June 13 and ‘‘ways and means to make it a reality. None of us wants fire or blood or victims’’.

Peres added: ‘‘I’m leaving Cairo with the sense that there is hope.’’

Arafat left to return to the Palestinian territories without speaking to reporters. Earlier he had a separate meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

Speaking earlier after his talks with Mubarak, Peres told reporters: ‘‘I told the president from the outset that we do not have any intention to attack the Palestinians.’’

The Israeli press has reported that Israel’s government is planning a large military operation against the Palestinian Authority, which would include striking Arafat.

But Peres said: ‘‘We don’t have any intention whatsoever, neither to have a ground attack or to attack Arafat or expel Arafat. It is all nonsense.

‘‘Arafat in our eyes is the elected leader of the Palestinians and he represents them.’’

Peres said he saw the recommendations of an international panel, led by former US Senator George Mitchell, as the basis for quelling the violence.

More than 500 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and more than 100 on the Israeli side since fighting began last September.

American envoys negotiated a truce four weeks ago, but the clashes and killings have resumed.

The Mitchell report called for an end to violence in the region, a crackdown on Palestinian militants by the Palestinian Authority and a freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Peres reiterated Israel’s opposition to the deployment of international observers, which Palestinians have called for.

He said he did not believe radical Palestinian groups such as Hamas would allow their activities to be monitored. And he said the international media attention that Israel already received would serve the same purpose as international monitoring.

Peres said the atmosphere between Israelis and Palestinians was ‘‘sick and poisoned. We have lost the capacity to listen to one another’’.

Referring to his talks with Arafat, their first since an unproductive meeting in Portugal two weeks ago, he said: ‘‘Our position is that we don’t negotiate under fire. We talk about how to stop fire.’’

Mubarak said today: ‘‘Reaching a ceasefire agreement, and then a comprehensive peace in the region, poses a great challenge for the international community. We should all shoulder our responsibility.’’

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters his government was pressing the Israelis to stop such actions as destroying Palestinian homes.

‘‘All these actions have to stop in order for us to pursue the implementation of the Mitchell report.’’

Concern about the state of the Middle East peace process has brought several mediators to the region.

Russian envoy Andrei Vdovin met Mubarak today and US envoy David Satterfield met Arafat in the West Bank on Saturday.

‘‘It is imperative that all efforts international, Arab and Israeli should be exerted in order to avoid a catastrophe,’’ Vdovin told reporters in Arabic after his talks with Mubarak.

Egypt, which withdrew its ambassador to Israel in November, has quietly kept open the lines of communication. The head of Egyptian intelligence reportedly visited Israel last week to discuss efforts to end the violence.

But Egypt and other Arab states have accused Israel of bearing the greater responsibility for the violence.

Gulf countries issued a statement last week blaming Israel for the collapse of the peace process and calling on the US to move decisively to end the violence.