On this day, 32 years ago, October 6, 1993 (August 21, 1993 in the lunar calendar), Arafat and Rabin held formal talks for the first time. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin held unannounced talks in Cairo today. It was their first formal meeting and their next meeting since the signing of the Palestinian-Israeli agreement in Washington on September 13. At 10:30 a.m. local time, Arafat in civilian clothes and Rabin, accompanied by Egyptian President Mubarak, walked into the meeting hall. The two old enemies for decades finally sat at the same negotiating table for the first time today. During their two-hour talks, Arafat and Rabin focused on how to implement the Palestinian-Israeli agreement, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza-Jericho, security issues in the region after the withdrawal, and the latest developments in the situation in the occupied territories. After the talks, Rabin and Arafat held separate press conferences. They emphasized that the talks were useful, important and constructive and created a good start for the full implementation of the terms of the Palestinian-Israeli agreement. Rabin and Arafat announced that they had unanimously agreed to establish four Palestinian-Israeli committees: a ministerial liaison committee to guide the entire Palestinian-Israeli negotiations; a committee to implement the Gaza-Jericho Declaration of Principles; a committee responsible for the bilateral Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in Washington to discuss issues related to the establishment of a Palestinian self-rule government, the establishment of a Palestinian Election Commission and Parliament; and an economic committee to discuss the reconstruction of the occupied territories. The first two committees will meet on October 13 in Cairo and Taba on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.