Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will fly to Washington for President Clinton's Mideast summit, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
Clinton had called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Arafat to arrange for the summit Tuesday after 73 people died last week in the worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in decades.The crisis began after Israelis enraged the Palestinians by opening a new entrance to an archaeological tunnel that runs alongside one of Islam's holiest sites.
Monday's statement from a PLO official in Cairo came after reports that Arafat had requested a delay in the session, saying that more time was needed to
make the meeting a success. Egypt's Middle East News Agency said Arafat had asked to move the meeting to Sunday.
Arafat was flying to Luxembourg Monday afternoon for discussions with European Community officials and then will go on to Washington, the PLO official said.
Netanyahu left Israel for the United States Monday as planned.
Both Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were hesitant to attend the summit without assurances Israel was ready to make concessions, said Mohammed Sobeih, PLO ambassador to the Arab League.
Israeli commentators described the summit as a gamble by Clinton, because he set it up with no guarantee of success. Failure could breed more frustration among Palestinians and raise the specter of more violence.
"The most important thing (the summit could achieve) is how to implement accurately and honestly what has been agreed upon," Arafat said Monday in Cairo.
Arafat wants Mubarak at the summit in case he comes under united pressure from Netanyahu, Clinton and King Hussein of Jordan.
"We have seen hesitations in advance of meetings here before," said Dennis Ross, chief Mideast aide to Secretary of State Warren Christopher. "What I think this points to in the current circumstance is there has been a decline in the degree of trust. The environment is clearly very sour," Ross told ABC News Monday.
For Netanyahu, the summit puts his tough approach to peacemaking to its first major test since he was elected prime minister in May, defeating the Labor Party that launched the peace process with Arafat.
Israel TV said Sunday night that Arafat would pledge to end the violence and stop objecting to the tunnel, while Netanyahu would agree to a timetable for future negotiations and a date for Israel's much-delayed pullout from the West Bank city of Hebron.
But Monday, Israeli radio commentators were quoting Netanyahu aides as saying the prime minister wants to "rethink" the pace of Israeli withdrawal.
Jewish prayers for the holiday of Sukkot passed peacefully Monday at the Western Wall where the tunnel begins.
Israel's completion of the tunnel triggered clashes that left 56 Palestinians and 14 Israelis dead in the worst fighting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in decades. Three Egyptian soldiers also were killed by stray bullets that crossed the Gaza-Egypt border.
The 500-yard tunnel was closed Friday and Saturday. When Israeli guards threw back the steel door Sunday to reopen the passageway, Arab teenagers pelted them with stones. Israeli riot police chased the youths down the Via Dolorosa - the route Jesus took to crucifixion - and then ringed the exit to protect emerging tourists.