Palestinians Outraged by Zinni's Attempt to Renegotiate Tenet Plan

26/03/2002| IslamWeb

JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - The Palestinians have postponed until Tuesday key security talks. A senior Palestinian official said top negotiators would hold talks with Zinni on Tuesday to discuss Palestinian concerns that his bridging proposal had diverged from a cease-fire agreement drawn up by CIA Director George Tenet last year. Israeli occupation sources said the Palestinians told them they had not had enough time to discuss the proposals, but US officials said only that the talks had suffered from a scheduling problem.
The latest US-brokered talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis were supposed to have continued after Sunday's talks chaired by American peac envoy Anthony Zinni ended without agreement.
Both sides were meant to have given their answers to US ideas for bridging gaps over implementing a truce plan.
A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinian delegation would tell Zinni on Tuesday "the Palestinians are not here to renegotiate Tenet, but are here to implement what Tenet called for."
Israel wants the Palestinian Authority to arrest militants behind a deadly campaign of Resistance bombings. Palestinians say they should only be required to arrest militants behind attacks launched after the cease-fire is forged.
Observers say the slowdown in truce talks made it unlikely that President Arafat would fulfil Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's conditions for attending the Beirut summit, which included implementing a truce on the ground and arresting Palestinian Resistance leaders.
But, according to the sources, Sharon might have to back down from his demands in the face of pressure from Washington, which said on Monday that Israel should give "serious consideration" to allowing Arafat to attend the Arab summit.
The United States is keen to see the Saudi land-for-peace proposal approved by Arab leaders to buoy Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and help garner Arab support for a campaign against Iraq in the next step of the U.S.-led war on terror.
In what Western media reports described as leaning on Israel to drop its confinement of Arafat to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington, "the president believes that Prime Minister Sharon and the Israel government should give serious consideration to allowing Yasser Arafat to attend."
Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed the point in telephone conversations with Sharon Saturday and Sunday, saying also that Arafat should be permitted to go back to the West Bank after the Arab League meeting.

PHOTO CAPTION:
U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni pauses during the meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Arafat's office in the West Bank town of Ramallah Friday March 22, 2002. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
- Mar 22 7:12 AM ET