Search
  1. Home
  2. Southern Africa
  3. Zimbabwe

Arafat meets Mugabe

    JOHANNESBURG

    Palestinain leader Yasser Arafat left South Africa on Thursday night for Zimbabwe, where he held talks on Friday with President Robert Mugabe, agencies reported. “I was speaking with President Mugabe how much we have suffered as Israel destroys our cities, homes and villages,” Arafat was quoted as saying by Zimbabwe’s state-owned Ziana news agency.

    South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a news conference on Friday that the situation in the Middle East was grave and that a resumption of peace talks was necessary to avoid further suffering. “We must get Israel and Palestine back to the negotiating table,” she said.

    While in south Africa Arafat attended a special meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Zimbabwe is a member of the NAM committee on Palestine. The NAM meeting came as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Thursday urged US President George W. Bush to play an active role in helping to end the conflict. At least 402 Palestinians have been killed in seven months of clashes, along with 13 Israeli Arabs and 76 Israelis. Arafat on Thursday urged the NAM to back his call for an unarmed international observer force in the West Bank and Gaza.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join