Posted on 03/17/2002 8:05:11 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The Palestinian Authority will not hold security or peace talks with Israel until it withdraws all Israeli forces from Palestinian-controlled areas it recently re-occupied, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Sunday.
The official also denied earlier reports, which said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has agreed to resume security talks with the Palestinians.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Arafat, said that no talks would be held until Israel pulls out from all of Palestinian Authority areas.
Israel recently pulled its tanks from most of the areas they entered in Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Tulkarim and Qalqilya, but tanks are still deployed in Bethlehem, Jenin and Gaza.
Abu Rudeineh said that "there will be no political or security meetings before total Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian Authority areas. This is something we have agreed on with (U.S. special envoy Anthony) Zinni."
A senior source in the Israeli prime minister's office, who spoke to United Press International on condition of anonymity, said Sharon was committed to the cease-fire, and would do everything possible to reach a deal but "will react to every attack commensurately with its seriousness."
"We want a cease-fire but when they shoot us and hit us, are we going to sit back and do nothing?" the source added.
Zinni met on Saturday with the Palestinian team headed by Ahmad Qurea, speaker of the Palestinian parliament. Zinni was expected to have another meeting with Arafat in Ramallah later on Sunday, a Palestinian official told UPI.
Mechanism for Talks
Qurea was reported to have said after the meeting on Saturday that they have agreed on specific procedures in order to work with Zinni.
The Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam daily quoted Qurea as saying that the procedures include Israeli withdrawal from areas under full Palestinian rule, to be followed by two security meetings in Gaza and the West Bank to make sure that the withdrawals are carried out completely.
He said the two meetings requested by the American team could be held within hours to make sure that Israel did pull its troops out but that convening them requires that Israel first withdraw its troops.
When the withdrawal was complete, added Qurea, the two sides would hold a meeting for the Higher Security Committee to discuss implementation of the Tenet security understandings.
The Tenet agreement is named after CIA Director George Tenet who negotiated it with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in June 2001. It says Israel and the Palestinian Authority would immediately resume security cooperation, enforce "strict adherence" to a cease-fire, and "move aggressively" to prevent attacks from within their areas. The work plan was supposed to create the conditions for implementing the Mitchell recommendations.
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