Monday, April 29, 2002

Israelis and Palestinians Accept U.S. Plan to End Siege and Free Arafat
The compromise did not address a second siege, around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Israel says wanted men are also holed up. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for more than four hours today but did not report finding a way out of the impasse.

The decision to accept the American proposal is likely to strengthen Israel's hand as it seeks to shape or perhaps eventually to defy the United Nations inquiry in Jenin, Israeli officials said. The government denies Palestinian accusations that the army committed war crimes in the camp, but it is demanding as the condition of its cooperation a say in the composition of the investigating team and in the scope of its mission.

Israel accepted the United Nations investigation on April 19, saying it would help demonstrate that the army did nothing wrong. But since then government officials have sharply criticized what they call a mission primed to smear Israel. In New York, the Security Council met this evening to form a response to the Israelis' stand.

Mr. Sharon had also become trapped by the siege in Ramallah. He wanted to exile Mr. Arafat, but he could not win his government's support for that step. He wanted to isolate Mr. Arafat diplomatically, but could not persuade American and European officials not to visit the Palestinian leader.

Further, he said in an interview on Wednesday, he was blocked from sending soldiers to raid the compound and extract the wanted men by a pledge to Mr. Bush that he would not harm Mr. Arafat.

Israeli ground forces have withdrawn to the outskirts of most of the West Bank cities and towns they invaded during the last month, in what the army described as a sweep for militants and their weapons laboratories. But soldiers and tanks have remained in and around Mr. Arafat's compound, which is in the heart of Ramallah, the unofficial Palestinian capital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/29/international/middleeast/29MIDE.html?pagewanted=all&position=top

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