JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) -Mideast antangonists Friday blamed each other for not living up to Washington's expectations in its latest bid to end almost 18 months of bloodshed since the eruption of the Palestinian Aqssa Intifadha, uprising, against Israeli occupation. The exchange of blame came as U.S.-mediated talks aimed at forging an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire ended without result on Friday. However another meeting was expected soon, despite the third Resistance bombing in as many days.
Violence has raged since the Palestinian intifadha against almost 35 years of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza began in 2000 after talks on an overall peace accord froze, following interim deals that handed parts of the territories to Palestinian rule.Israel has said that if a truce is reached it will lift its travel ban on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to allow him to have talks with Vice President Dick Cheney, and to attend an Arab summit next week in Beirut devoted to a Saudi-initiated Middle East peace plan.
But the White House said on Friday Arafat had not yet fulfilled conditions to meet Cheney, citing continued Palestinian assaults on Israelis. Israeli Prime minister, Ariel Sharon and his foreign minister, Shimon Perez blamed Yasser Arafat for the on-going Resistance campaign claiming that they have documents to prove that Arafat has authorized payments for groups involved in attacks against Israelis.
For their part, Palestinian officials said that the Israelis are not living to US-Palestininan expectations either. Three other Palestinian deaths were reported on Friday. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation troops shot dead an armed man approaching a crossing point with Israel. In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, a four-year-old Palestinian girl died a day after being hit by Israeli gunfire. And a Palestinian shepherd was shot dead after being detained by Israeli occupation troops near the West Bank town of Nablus. The occupation army said it had shot dead a man in the area claiming that he was spotted by occupation troops planting a bomb on a road. (Read photo caption below)
U.S. officials have heaped pressure on the adversaries to show restraint and give the cease-fire mission of Washington's Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni a chance to bear fruit.
Friday's talks took place at a secret location in Israel's biggest city Tel Aviv as another Palestinian Resistance bomber blew himself up after the taxi he was in was halted at an Israeli army checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, injuring an Israeli occupation soldier.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Palestinian Resistance organization and newly designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the State Department, claimed responsibility for the third Resistance bombing in three days.
In a statement, the Israeli occupation army said the bomber would have struck a civilian area in nearby Israel had his taxi not been halted in the northern West Bank just short of the boundary.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing. Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned it and said it would bring the perpetrators to justice.
After a tough phone call from Secretary of State Colin Powell, Arafat on Thursday night vowed immediate action to curb Palestinian militants attacking Israeli civilians.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A Palestinian youth uses a sling shot to hurl stones at an Israeli position during clashes in the West Bank City of Ramallah, March 22, 2002. U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni convened Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs to try to salvage a battered truce mission after a Palestinian Resistance bombing in Jerusalem that killed three Israelis. Another Palestinian Resistance bomber blew himself up Friday at an Israeli army roadblock near the West Bank town of Jenin, wounding at least one person, according to Israel Radio. Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reute