Free- Arafat Plan Under Way


HIGHLIGHTS: Detainees To Be Moved To Jericho Prison - Arafat Unlikely to Take Israel up on Offer to Leave Compound - Occupation Troops Leave Ramallah after Prisoners do.

STORY: Six Palestinians wanted by Israel will be moved from Yasser Arafat 's compound to a West Bank prison within two days, at which point the Palestinian leader's month long confinement will end, a Palestinian official said Monday, revealing first details of the U.S.-brokered deal.(Read photo caption within). The six prisoners, including four assassins of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, will be moved from Arafat's besieged headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah to a prison in the town of Jericho, a 45-minute drive away, said Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Arafat was free to leave his headquarters even now, and that Israeli troops would pull out of Ramallah once the six prisoners had been moved.

Arafat was not expected to take Israel up on the offer of leaving his compound immediately, for fear Israeli forces might storm the building and seize the six.

In Jericho, the six prisoners will be guarded by American and British wardens - part of the deal worked out over the weekend by President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Four, of the detainees are members of a radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The other two detainees are the leader of the PFLP, Ahmed Saadat, and Fuad Shobaki, a senior Arafat aide suspected of involvement in a large arms shipment intercepted by Israel earlier this year.

Palestinian officials said that once the prisoners had been moved from the Ramallah compound, Arafat would be able to travel. "

However, other officials have said Arafat would still be restricted to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel first imposed travel restrictions on Arafat in December, barring him from leaving Ramallah. With the start of its military offensive March 29, Israel confined Arafat to a few rooms at his headquarters.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, center, meets with British consul Jeffrey Adams, second right, U.S. consul Ronald Schlicher, third right, and his advisors from left, Mohammed Rashed, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, Information minister Yasser Abedrabo and Mahmoud Abbas at Arafat's besieged headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Sunday, April 28, 2002. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo/HO/Palestinian Authority, Hussein Hussei

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