RAMALLAH, West Bank, 5 January — US special envoy Anthony Zinni said here yesterday Israeli-Palestinian security talks would resume with US participation, but failed to present any timetable for starting to implement a cease-fire. "We will hold trilateral meetings again. I am here to make an assessment on the ground and to restart the process that we began the last time we were here" last month, Zinni said after meeting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
"I am optimistic and I am hopeful and feel that we have the conditions that are right to get the process moving," he told reporters. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the first session of the trilateral commission grouping representatives of the Palestinian Authority, Israeli security services and the US Central Intelligence Agency would be held tomorrow.
According to Israeli press reports, Zinni, who earlier met the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, will attend the meeting personally. Erekat also told reporters that Zinni did not present any timetable for the implementation of a US cease-fire plan, after Israeli security officials said he wanted it to go into effect immediately. "Zinni did not present any timetable for starting to implement the Mitchell and Tenet reports," Erekat said.
The Israeli Army, meanwhile, said it killed a Palestinian in a raid on a West Bank village yesterday while Zinni held breakfast talks at Sharon’s ranch. Israel Radio also said Israeli forces recently intercepted a ship carrying weapons to the Palestinian Authority. The PA said yesterday’s armor and infantry incursion into the village of Tel, in territory under its control, showed that Sharon was pursuing a war against the Palestinian people despite Zinni’s presence.
"Acting on information about a terrorist squad, Israeli forces entered Tel village. The forces encountered armed terrorists and a gunbattle ensued in which a terrorist was killed and two were arrested," an army spokesman said.
Israeli armed forces chief Gen. Shaul Mofaz, told a press conference that Israeli Marine commandos had boarded a boat in the Red Sea on Thursday carrying 50 tons of weapons. But the Palestinian Authority quickly issued a denial. "We don’t know anything (about the boat), we have nothing to do with this," Arafat’s top adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told reporters in Ramallah. "This is Israeli propaganda intended to sabotage Mr. Zinni’s mission," he said.
