(13:15) US miffed as PA leaders fail to attend security talks
By The Associated Press
The Bush administration is upset that aides to Yasser Arafat failed to attend US-organized security talks with Israel this week.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that the absence of the Palestinian leaders' security aides was at odds with an understanding reached with Arafat.
Privately, other officials said the absence of Jibril Rajoub, who is in charge of West Bank security, from a meeting Tuesday, and Mohammed Dahlan, who supervises Gaza, hampered efforts to arrange a mutual cease-fire.
As a result, US diplomats canceled a meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, that was designed to implement the recommendations of a fact-finding commission headed by former Sen. George Mitchell.
A new round of security talks is being arranged by the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, but it will be held at a lower level because there is no assurance Rajoub and Dahlan would attend if senior level talks were scheduled.
The main goals in the talks are halting Palestinian mortar attacks on Israeli towns and persuading IDF troops to hold their fire when attacked to give US diplomats more time to restrain the Palestinians.
The US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States preferred having Palestinian officials empowered to scale down violence in the meetings.
Also, the officials said, the senior security officials had said they would be at the meetings.
Boucher, in openly criticizing the Palestinian Authority, said "as we were arranging these meetings we understood from Chairman Arafat that all senior Palestinian security chiefs will attend."
"Unfortunately, we continue to be disappointed that not all the key Palestinian officials are, in fact, attending these meetings," Boucher said.
"We recognize it's very difficult for some of these individuals and for the parties to address, but we think it's essential that both sides start the process of implementing the Mitchell committee recommendations and get on with the process of ending the violence, restoring confidence and resuming negotiations."
The frustration underscored the difficulty encountered by William Burns, the American diplomat assigned to finding agreement on ending the latest Palestinian uprising and Israel's use of force to try to suppress it.
Burns warned this week that the continuation of violence "threatens to overtake" efforts to implement the Mitchell commission's recommendations.
Palestinians are demanding a freeze on all construction at Jewish settlements. That is a key recommendation of the Mitchell Commission report, and Secretary of State Colin Powell has endorsed the report.
But Powell has insisted on a cease-fire without any preconditions.
Yesterday, President Moshe Katsav said he had asked President George W. Bush at their White House meeting to set a deadline for the Palestinians to end attacks on Israel.
Bush called it "an interesting idea" but made no
commitment, Katsav told Israeli reporters after a 20-minute session in the Oval Office.
He said he also told Bush that terror attacks have stressed the Israeli people beyond reasonable limits.
Katsav did not elaborate on how he thought the United States could enforce such a deadline. But on Wednesday, he told The Associated Press the United States and other nations should suspend dealing with the Palestinian Authority if attacks on Israel were not stopped.
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