Cairo, May 3: United States Vice President Al Gore, thrust onto centre stage as Middle East peace efforts intensified, urged Israelis and Palestinians to ``open your minds'' and break the current impasse. Gore arrived in Egypt just before dawn today after a meeting late last night in the West Bank with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and then huddled at Tel Aviv airport for two hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With a possibly make-or-break new round of US-led Middle East peace talks set to be held tomorrow in London, a senior US official said Gore gave Netanyahu and Arafat the same message, ``You've got to make an effort.''``Look, this is it,'' Gore warned, according to the official who added, ``You can't afford to let this moment pass. It may not come back again. You have got to set your minds and try to land this one.''
After seeing Arafat at the Palestinian leader's offices in Ramallah, Gore told newsmen, ``It appears to me that some progress has been made but that, as isnatural, the most difficult questions are the ones which are left until the last days and hours of the process.''
``Like all who love peace, I have watched this process with hope in my heart that at this critical stage of the process there will be a successful conclusion at the talks in London,'' Gore said.
Gore is to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today for talks certain to involve the latest US peace efforts for the region.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is scheduled to hold separate talks in London with both Netanyahu and Arafat tomorrow.
The United States has proposed that Israel withdraw its force from 13.1 per cent of the West Bank and halt construction of new settlements.
The Palestinians have accepted the US plan but Israel has balked at withdrawing from that much territory, saying Palestinians must first live up to promises to curb militant Islamic violence.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
