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Arafat at Beijing in search of new friends |
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August 15, 2000
BEIJING (AP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat visited China on Monday to brief Chinese leaders on the failed Middle East peace summit and plans to declare an independent Palestinian state on Sept. 13. During his one-day visit, Arafat will meet President Jiang Zemin to convey his impression of last month's summit and to discuss a possible unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state next month, said Moustapha Saphariny, the Palestinian ambassador in Beijing. Arafat repeatedly has said he will declare an independent state Sept. 13, the deadline for a final Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement At the Camp David summit, Israel offered the Palestinians limited control over parts of east Jerusalem, but Arafat held firm on Palestinians' demand for full sovereignty over the traditionally Arab area. A Chinese vice foreign minister, Ji Peiding, and a crowd of Arab ambassadors greeted Arafat on his arrival early Monday at Beijing's airport. After low-level meetings in the capital, Arafat was to meet Jiang in Beidaihe, a seaside resort east of Beijing where Chinese leaders meet each summer to hammer out policy. China in 1988 became the first major power to establish ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization and it provided financial and military assistance to the PLO. China, however, also has a warming relationship with Israel, from which it buys arms. |