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Mideast crisis critical as Arab summit begins in chaos, 19 killed in bombing

Middle East peace efforts reeled from a double setback March 27, as an Arab summit opened in chaos amid the absence of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and a suicide bomber killed 19 people in Israel.

The bombing came a day after Israel ignored U.S. pressure to lift a travel ban on Arafat and let him attend the Arab summit in Beirut without preconditions

Arafat rejected Israel's terms, which included a cease-fire and the Israeli right to veto his return to the West Bank.

The summit is expected to endorse a plan by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah that would grant Israel peace and normal relations with the Arab world in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

But the meeting opened in turmoil March 27, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a no-show, apparently out of solidarity with Arafat, and Jordan's King Abdullah also absent.

The Palestinian delegation walked out, accusing Lebanese President Emile Lahoud of preventing Arafat from addressing the meeting by satellite link-up.

Meanwhile, in Netanya, Israel, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 19 other people at a resort hotel.

The attack was the deadliest suicide bombing since last June when 21 people were killed outside a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Shukan ST: April 5, 2002

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