Weekly Ministerial Cabinet Meeting 

April 14 th 2000

President Arafat chaired, last Friday, the weekly Ministerial Cabinet meeting in Ramallah in the presence of the Members of the Executive Committee of the PLO and the Cabinet members. The Palestinian leadership stressed the necessity of achieving progress in the Washington negotiations and called upon Israel to show genuine seriousness in these negotiations and to stop construction work in the Eastern Periphery of Jerusalem.

President Arafat also stressed the necessity of achieving progress in the second round of negotiations and asked for an effective and positive American participation.

After the president delivered his speech, the leadership discussed the main topics on the agenda, in particular the status of negotiations, the question of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other national issues.

Regarding the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the Palestinian leadership confirmed that they have the right of return according to UN Resolution (194), that the question of refugees will not be a stumbling block for the Lebanese Government to liberate Southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation, and that the implementation of UN Resolution (425) regarding South Lebanon is an important precedent for the implementation of resolution (242) on the Palestinian and Syrian territories.