RAMALLAH, West Bank, 14 June — CIA Director George Tenet left the Middle East after brokering a cease-fire deal between Israel and the Palestinians, lifting hopes that more than eight months of violence between the sides might end.
Before wrapping up his week-long mission, Tenet hosted an inaugural session of an Israeli-Palestinian-US security committee which will oversee the implementation of the truce. Shrouded in secrecy, the talks between Palestinian and Israeli security officials took place at an undisclosed location just hours after Tenet won Palestinian acceptance for his plan to bolster a fragile cease-fire. “It was a productive, constructive discussion,” a senior US diplomat said. “We are now looking for mutual steps on the ground to fulfill immediate requirements of the work plan.”
Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday discussed with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by telephone the latest developments in the Middle East.
President George W. Bush, speaking in Brussels, said Tenet had told him he was “cautiously optimistic” about the plan to halt the fighting, which erupted last September as Palestinians revolted against Israeli occupation after peacemaking stalled. Israeli Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland said soldiers were issued with new, strict rules of engagement allowing them to open fire only “when they feel they are under immediate risk to their life”.
The Palestinian group Hamas said it would ignore any truce and continue its fight against Israel. Another group, Islamic Jihad, called the deal an insult to those who had died fighting Israeli occupation.
Yesterday’s three-way meeting followed tough talks overnight between US and Palestinian representatives over Tenet’s “work plan”, which Israel had approved on Tuesday. Arafat was quoted by Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo as telling Tenet the Palestinians objected to a demand to set up buffer zones between Israeli and Palestinian forces that would run 500 meters deep into Palestinian areas, saying this was tantamount to reoccupation. The Palestinian Authority issued a statement after an extraordinary Cabinet meeting calling for Israel to immediately lift its closure of the Palestinian territories and pull back its troops to positions held before the revolt erupted. A senior Palestinian official said the Tenet plan called on Israel to lift a blockade within 48 hours of yesterday’s security meeting.
Outlining what he said was about 80 percent of the three-page plan, the official told Reuters that security delegates would hold a second meeting within a week to establish when Israel should lift its closure and pull troops back from positions held since the uprising began.
Under the plan, Palestinian authorities must collect illegal arms including mortar bombs, close down bomb factories and prevent illegal arms smuggling, the official said. The document calls on the Palestinian Authority to immediately “apprehend, question, and incarcerate fighters in the West Bank and Gaza” and provide the security committee with the names of those arrested.
