The following is IMRA's translation of the text of a letter written by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to FM Shimon Peres on 7 June 1993, 3 months before the announcement of the Oslo agreement, as published in Maariv on 12 September 2003 in an article by Noam Amit "Always Guilty": 7 June 1993, Top Secret

To: Foreign Minister Shimon Peres

         Re: Oslo Contacts       Further to our conversation on this matter on Sunday, 6.6.93, I wish to repeat the main points of what I said. The contacts termed "Oslo contacts" under the current circumstances constitute a danger to the continuation of peace talks... [the dots in the original article]       First they give an opportunity to the Tunis people to bypass the talks in Washington and weaken the positive element of the Palestinian delegation - the residents of the territories. The Tunis people are the extremist element among Palestinians interested in the peace process and they prevent the more moderate elements from advancing the negotiations with us. This gained clear expression in the ninth (last) round of negotiations. Moreover, they prevent members of the Palestinian delegation from talking with the Diplomatic Section in Washington.

      It can very well be that the Tunis people intend to foil any chance of reaching substantive negotiations in Washington and force us to talk only with them, and then the negotiations with the Syrians, Lebanese and Jordanians is expected to be endangered... [the dots in the original article]       I ask you to halt the contacts until this is clarified again.

         ***

      The Ma'ariv article notes that this clarification process took a week and that Peres then succeeded in convincing Rabin to allow the talks to continue.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis) (mail
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