Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres indicated Israel would not exclude Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat from future peace talks provided PLO declarations renouncing terrorism prove true. Peres did not name Arafat in a television interview Sunday, but said Israel was prepared to talk with ``every Palestinian, no matter what his biography was, if he is not shooting and killing.'' He said Israel will wait ``a month, a couple of months,'' to see if terrorism, including uprisings in the occupied territories, ends. Israeli officials have denounced the United States decision last week to hold a ``substantive dialogue'' with the PLO, strongly condemning a move that grants diplomatic credibility to a man Israelis accuse of masterminding a campaign of terror against the Jewish state. Terrorism played a large role in the first talks U.S. and PLO officials held in Tunis last week. The session took place after Arafat last week met American conditions that included recognition of Israel's right to exist and renunciation of terrorism. Peres, in the interview on CBS-TV's ``Face the Nation,'' appeared to step back from Israel's refusal to take part in talks that include Arafat. He linked such negotiations, however, to an end to violence in the occupied territories. Arafat, in speaking against terrorism, has not included the stone-throwing and other acts carried out by Palestinians under Israeli rule. So far, 332 Palestinians have died in the year-old clashes with Israeli soldiers, including three who were killed today. And despite the movement towards peace talks, statements from other PLO officials indicated violence was far from a thing of the past. Salah Khalaf, second in command Arafat in Fatah, the largest PLO group, meanwhile, told an Abu Dhabi news conference that Arafat's denunciation of terrorism last week ``did not include military attacks against Israel.'' ``Our struggle will continue until we raise the Palestinian flag over Jerusalem,'' he said. Peres said in the television interview, ``I shall say, very clearly, I am ready to sit with every Palestinian who is not engaged in terror, who is seeking peace and who wants to negotiate the peaceful solution with Israel.'' Asked whether that included sitting down with Arafat, he said, ``I am not ready to refer to a single person because I don't think that's the issue. But I am saying, in a very clear way, with every Palestinian, no matter what his biography used to be.'' Peres added he has ``doubts about Mr. Arafat.'' But he said, ``I am ready to sit with every Palestinian, no matter what his biography was ...'' ``If Mr. Arafat says, `I'm going to stop violence and terror,' okay, let's wait a month, a couple of months and see if this is really going to happen,'' Peres said. It was unclear from the comments whether that view would carry over into a new Israeli government. Talks between Peres' Labor Alignment and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Likud Bloc over a new government have broken down, leaving Shamir aides talking about forming a new governing coalition with ultra-orthodox Jewish parties.
