JERUSALEM, Feb. 9, 01 (CWNews.com) - The newly elected prime minister of Israel said there will be no resumption of Middle East peace talks while violence by Palestinian extremists continues, after a car bomb exploded in an ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem on Thursday.
A previously unknown Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the blast, which caused no serious injuries, as a response to the election of Ariel Sharon as prime minister earlier in the week. Sharon reacted by informing Palestinian leaders that peace talks would not continue while general violence, which began in September, continues.
US President George W. Bush urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to help break the latest cycle of Middle East violence, shortly before the car bomb tore through an Orthodox-Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood. Bush's telephone call to Arafat was his first since the U.S. leader took office January 20 and ushered in a more hands-off approach to Washington's role in the peace process than the one embraced by his predecessor Clinton.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
9. februar 2001