More IDF action expected inside PA
Zinni threatens to quit - gives sides 48-hour deadline for progress in talks
The inner security cabinet last night approved more offensive action by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inside the Palestinian Authority after a security briefing by top officials from the defense establishment persuaded the ministers that the PA is still not taking substantial measures against terrorists and has not interrogated the suspects it has arrested.
According to the defense officials, the PA has arrested 10 of the 33 people on a list provided by Israel to U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni, who gave the list to the PA. A senior defense official said that those arrested are being held in comfortable conditions, without any interrogations, and some have been told they will be released soon. Others who have yet to be arrested continue to prepare terror attacks, the source said.
The measures approved by the inner cabinet are expected to include, in the first stage, more aerial bombings of PA security installations. The IDF will apparently continue its ground incursions into Areas A and B to arrest suspected terrorists. And the assassination policy will continue against suspected top-level terrorists or those believed to be on their way to a terror attack.
Israeli sources said that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat withdrew his request that Israel allow him to leave the territories to go to an Arab foreign ministers conference in Qatar at the end of the week.
At the cabinet meeting held yesterday morning at IDF headquarters in Beit El, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he did not think that Arafat "would have time to go" due to "all the work he has arresting terrorists."
"He has a lot of work ahead of him. This is a very sensitive time, the situation on the ground is difficult and he has to fulfill the obligations he undertook," said Sharon.
Palestinian sources said no request had been made by Arafat, who decided on his own to remain in the PA. According to one report, Arafat said that he "wants to die" in the PA.
Palestinian sources said that Israeli reports of a Palestinian request for Arafat to leave the PA were untrue. According to the Palestinians, if Arafat wanted to leave the territories, he could use Jordanian aircraft.
U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni meanwhile issued an ultimatum to both sides at a meeting of the top-level tripartite security committee that convened at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem yesterday. Zinni said that if, within 48 hours, there was no significant progress, he would reassess his mission to the region. But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters traveling with him that Zinni was staying.
Powell said he was not appealing to Hamas and other militant groups opposed to the peace process so much as stating a fact. "They will not push Israel into the sea. And so they will not be successful, if that is their goal," Powell said.
Asked what kinds of solutions Zinni had proposed, Powell said a number of ideas had emerged in the past few months, including taking steps to increase local control of Palestinian areas and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to see whether a cease-fire would hold. "You are going to have to get it location by location, piece by piece, and try to build this - if it is going to be built at all - like coral, one piece at a time coming out of the sea," he said.
At the start of yesterday's meeting, Zinni made his position known and then left the room, seemingly in a huff. According to Israeli sources, the meeting went on a little while longer, but with no progress. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office claimed yesterday that Zinni's ultimatum was directed only at the Palestinians, noting that both U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to the American media about PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and the PA not yet taking appropriate action against terrorists and Israel having a right to defend itself.
Powell told reporters that Arafat could do more to end the violence. "We've got to get a cease-fire. I think the burden right now is on Mr. Arafat to do more to get the violence down to zero." He said Arafat had tens of thousands of armed security personnel at his disposal and that Hamas was destroying the Palestinian leader's authority and credibility. "This is a direct challenge to the peace process, to his party, to his ability to demonstrate that he is the leader of the Palestinian people and in the position to negotiate with the Israelis," Powell said.
But Palestinian sources, while admitting Zinni's ultimatum referred to the PA's efforts as well, said that Zinni "expressed disappointment in both sides." One Palestinian source, noting that the PA had been making arrests and was continuing to do so, said that "we've done our part, now it's up to the Israelis." The Palestinians want Israel to lift the sieges of towns and cities and halt the assassinations, so the PA can explain to the Palestinian public why it is making the arrests.
According to the Palestinians, the meeting without Zinni was mostly "verbal bashing" - one Palestinian source who took part in the session said that he told Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter that "what you mean is that the Palestinians cease fire, and stop the fire of the people who oppose the PA, while the Israelis continue shooting and weakening the PA day after day."
A few hours after the end of the security meeting in Jerusalem, which was not attended by Palestinian Preventive Security Chief Jibril Rajoub, but did include top-level representatives from both Israel and the PA, the Palestinians proposed to Dichter that another meeting be held to prepare a joint resolution for a cease-fire, Palestinian sources said last night. According to the Palestinians, such a joint resolution is one of Zinni's demands from both sides. As of last night, no response to the Palestinian proposal had been received.
Israeli sources were unequivocal in their understanding of Zinni's demand for action as being aimed at the Palestinians. "Zinni wants the Palestinians to act, but they just sit there and complain instead of working," said a source in the PMO.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres meanwhile left for Brussels yesterday to take part in a meeting of the European Union's foreign ministers. Peres is to meet with colleagues from Germany, France, Spain - which takes over the EU presidium on January 1 - and Denmark, as well as the Belgian prime minister. Also attending the meeting is Palestinian Minister Nabil Sha'ath, who left the territories yesterday. It was not known yesterday if Sha'ath and Peres would meet for a working session in Brussels. |
