SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT, OCT 16: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is "fed up" with Yasser Arafat and believes the Palestinian leader is not ready for peace, Barak's chief spokesman said here today.The Israeli premier also complained to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that "Arafat voluntarily and knowingly directed the violence" that has swept the Palestinian territories since September 28, his office said in a statement.Barak told Mubarak in the first of a series of bilateral meetings ahead of a crucial summit later today that Arafat should have instead been "moving toward a peace agreement, which was within reach.""Personal relationships play an important role in diplomacy," Barak's spokesman Nahman Shai said, "and I have the feeling that Barak is fed up with Arafat."One day there will be another (Palestinian) leader ready to make peace with Israel," he told reporters. "The assessment on our side is that he (Arafat) is not ready for peace."Shai, speaking after Barak arrived in this Red Sea diving resort for a last-ditch summit to salvage the shattered Middle East peace process, added however that although "the mood is sombre. we are always hopeful."Barak's office also said Mubarak told him in their 75-minute meeting that the issue on the table was "a withdrawal of Israeli forces to their positions before the violence broke out and the lifting of the closure of Palestinian territories."
