MONDAY, 2.00PM:
DEPUTY Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad met a senior Palestinian Liberation Organisation official, executive committee member Faisal Husseini, in East Jerusalem on Sunday. The meeting followed earlier talks with Palestine’s planning and international co-operation minister Nabil Sha’ath and Palestinian legislative assembly speaker Hanan Ashrawi,as well as the Palestinian business association on Saturday.
The Palestinian leg of Pahad’s six-day Middle East tour follows visits to Jordan and to Israel, where Pahad met Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A spokesman said Israel has requested that the issue of strengthening bilateral relations with South Africa, particularly in the economic field, not be linked to the peace process. However Pahad insisted that there will have to be progress on implementing the Oslo Accord before there can be any expansion.
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