A Senior Palestinian Official Urges End to Suicide Attacks
The senior Palestinian security official who has been negotiating with Israel on a cease-fire denounced suicide attacks in an interview published today in an Israeli newspaper as "murders for no reason," and said he was demanding that militant organizations abandon them.

The official, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, who was appointed Palestinian interior minister in June, said he had told all Palestinian factions: "Stop the suicide bombings, stop the murders for no reason. Return to the legitimate struggle against the occupation, without violence and following international norms and legitimacy."

Suicide attacks, he said, harmed the Palestinian cause. "Children were exploited for these attacks," he said, "when they could have made a much more positive contribution to future Palestinian society."

It was also noteworthy that his comments appeared in an interview with Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot. Mr. Yehiyeh and another ranking Palestinian, Muhammad Dahlan, who is Yasir Arafat's top security adviser, have been seeking in recent weeks to project a conciliatory, moderate image to Israelis.

Mr. Yehiyeh, in his interview, acknowledged that neither Hamas and Islamic Jihad, nor the radical wing of Mr. Arafat's movement, Fatah, have agreed to forswear terror. The extreme organizations have publicly rejected Mr. Yehiyeh's proposals, though talks among the factions continue. The next meeting was set for Sunday.

Mr. Yehiyeh was also the Palestinian official who negotiated with the Israeli defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, on an agreement to pull Israeli troops back from Bethlehem and Gaza, and eventually other towns, if the Palestinians kept the peace. Though the process stalled after an initial pullback in Bethlehem, Mr. Yehiyeh said Palestinians had "full control" in Bethlehem, which has remained peaceful since the Israelis allowed the Palestinian police to return on Aug. 19.

Both Mr. Yehiyeh and Mr. Dahlan have insisted that they are acting under the authority of Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader, who remains secluded in his headquarters in Ramallah. But Mr. Dahlan, at least, urged Israelis not to focus so much attention on the Palestinian leadership.

"Don't waste time on dreams over who will come after Arafat," he said. "For better or for worse, Arafat represents the consensus. Everything else is nonsense."

So far, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, have made no public signs of changing their harsh policies. General Yaalon made headlines over the past week when he declared that if Israel did not defeat the Palestinian Authority, Israelis would face a "cancerous threat." Mr. Sharon declared that General Yaalon's comments were "true and correct."

Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza have also continued undiminished, with daily reports of raids to nab militants, often leading to Palestinian casualties

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/31/international/middleeast/31MIDE.html