History could be in the making in Majorca next week

Majorca will this weekend play host to an extremely important, and potentially historic, meeting with regards to peace in the Middle East. The Hotel Formentor will be the scene for the third Foro Formentor which this year will not only be attended by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but also the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israel's Foreign Minister Simon Peres. The timing of the Formentor meeting, which could develop in to a “mini” Middle East peace summit, comes at a crunch time for both Israel and Palestine. European leaders have joined with the United States in efforts to calm the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to help bolster Arab support for a global anti-terror coalition following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The two-day meeting, which opens on Friday, will also be attended by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and a number of other “Mediterranean” leaders, but the Middle East issue is expected to dominate the agenda. Israeli sources have yet to confirm Peres's trip to Spain and meeting with Arafat in Majorca on Friday, but Palestinian sources have confirmed that the two men will meet at the Hotel Formentor and pick up where their talks left off during their last meeting on September 26: at which the latest cease-fire was agreed.