Monday, August 12, 2002

Arafat Calls U.S. Meetings 'Very Positive'; Sharon Sees 'Trick'
The diplomatic front remained murky in this atmosphere of mutual recriminations as the Palestinian delegation, led by an Arafat loyalist, Saeb Erekat, returned from three days of talks with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and others. How these meetings squared with President Bush's announced intention not to deal with Mr. Arafat was not clear.

"The talks were very positive and very important, and there will be results on the ground very soon," Mr. Arafat said at his battered compound in Ramallah, which is surrounded by Israeli troops and armor.

Then, in the next breath, he appeared to contradict this vision of progress, saying Israel "is looking only for more escalation for its military plans — they are not looking to achieve peace."

At the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting in Jerusalem today, the security plan put forward by Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer — called "Gaza First" — came under fire from several ministers on the right. Yitzhak Levy of the National Religious Party, representing Jewish settlers, asked if Israel was returning to negotiating with Mr. Arafat.

"Arafat stands at the head of terror; no one is counting on him," Mr. Sharon replied.

Mr. Ben-Eliezer's plan calls for a tentative pullback of Israel troops in Gaza — which is fenced in and where the Palestinian Authority's security forces are more intact than in the West Bank — as a test of whether the Palestinians can stop attacks on Israel.

Talks have broken down, though, with Palestinians contending that the Israelis reneged on an agreement to include a relatively quiet West Bank city like Bethlehem in the initial pullback. The Israelis say the Palestinians are insisting on Ramallah. Seven of eight Palestinian cities in the West Bank are now under the control of Israeli troops.

This afternoon, a reporter from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Gideon Levy, was fired on by the Israeli Army without warning in Tulkarm. He was in the area with permission, presented his credentials to soldiers, was told to check in at a military headquarters and was driving slowly there when a soldier fired into his windshield. He was not injured.

The army issued an apology for an incident in Nablus yesterday in which a municipal worker repairing the electric system with army permission during a curfew was shot dead by soldiers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/12/international/middleeast/12MIDE.html

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