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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (581)	11/26/2001 9:32:15 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

At least we have a strong PM: Who else could lead Israel during this crisis? Monday, November 26, 2001 Kislev 11, 5762 Israel Time: 16:28 (GMT+2) 10:21 26/11/2001 Last update - 15:07 26/11/2001 PM repeats call for 7 days of quiet; hardline aide to head talks By Aluf Benn and Dalia Shehori, Ha'aretz Correspondents, and Ha'aretz Service Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that he is sticking by his demand for "seven days of quiet" as the first step in implementing the Mitchell Report. Sharon made his comments in preparation for talks with U.S. envoys - retired Marine general Anthony Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns - who will meet Tuesday with the prime minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Also present at the talks will be the heads of the security services and officials from the Foreign Ministry. "Israel places great importance on reaching a cease-fire and will do everything it can in order to achieve this aim," Sharon said. "Israel is committed to the Tenet and Mitchell agreements. I hope that the [arrival] of General Zinni will further the process and hasten the start of the seven days of quiet that has been decided upon." Sharon on Monday named former IDF general and counter-terrorism expert Meir Dagan - rather than Peres - to head the Israeli team for talks with the arriving U.S. envoys. The American diplomats, who are expected to arrive Monday afternoon, will meet with Sharon during Tuesday and dine with Peres in the evening. Israel Radio reported that the Palestinian delegation for talks with the U.S. envoys had expressed strong reservations about the choice of Dagan, who is viewed by many Palestinians as holding ultra-hawkish views. Sharon has proposed a three-member steering committee, to include himself, Peres and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, to oversee the Dagan-led professional team which will conduct the talks. It is that professional team that formed the core of the dispute between Sharon and Peres over the makeup of the Israeli team. While Peres wanted to head the delegation, Sharon wanted the team comprised of security experts, and focused on security issues only. Peres believes the team should be able to discuss political issues too, in case the Zinni mission fails, and the U.S. seeks to apportion blame. If Israel is ready to discuss political issues, Peres believes, a failed cease-fire would be blamed on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Defense sources meanwhile are saying that Israel will not be able to continue its policy of "pinpoint targeting" - meaning assassinations - of Palestinian terror suspects while Zinni is in the region. The political echelon has ruled that the assassinations should continue - but only in "critical" cases. A senior West Bank official of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction said Monday that Hamas has the right to avenge Israel's assassination of the leaders of the militant Islamic organization, declaring that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a clear interest in preserving the current level of violence because of the Israeli leader's intramural rivalry with hawkish former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hussein a-Sheikh, West Bank secretary of the mainstream Fatah wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Fatah continued to oppose the killing of innocents, such as the deadly Islamic suicide bombings at Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium disco and Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzaria. But he told Army Radio that as a result of recent Israeli military operations, including the Friday assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud Abu Hanoud in a helicopter gunship strike in the West Bank, "At present the Palestinian people, the Palestinian factions, are in a corner that they didn't want to be in - it was Sharon that pushed them into it - and it is their right to avenge the blood of the people, of the cadre, of their leaders." Meeting ahead of the envoys' visit, the American-chaired Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. security committee convened for two hours Sunday evening, with participants reporting that the talks were held in a positive atmosphere. Security sources said that CIA officials asked to convene the council before the impending visit. Sharon told the cabinet Sunday morning that Israel placed great importance on reaching a cease-fire agreement with the Palestinians and that the government would make every effort to secure such an agreement. However, Sharon added that Zinni's visit to the area "is a test for [PA Chairman Yasser] Arafat and the Palestinian leadership to show whether their intentions really are to advance the diplomatic process."