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Middle East truce meeting ends without result
( 2002-03-23 10:44 ) (7 )

US mediated talks aimed at forging an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire ended without result on Friday but another meeting was expected soon, despite the third suicide bombing in as many days.

US 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.

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.

Friday's talks took place at a secret location in Israel's biggest city Tel Aviv as another Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up after the taxi he was in was halted at an Israeli army checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, injuring a soldier.

An Israeli security source said the talks were held "at the Americans' behest, although frankly we were reluctant to do so given the continued Palestinian terrorist attacks."

"The meeting ended with no concrete accomplishments as far as we were concerned. We agreed to hold another meeting early next week, possibly on Sunday," he told Reuters.

"We emphasized that, (truce) or other negotiations notwithstanding, attacks such as these suicide bombings must end if there is to be anything accomplished with the Palestinians."

A senior Palestinian security source said only that clashing Palestinian and Israeli conceptions of the truce were discussed and "there will be further similar meetings in coming days."

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Arafat's Fatahmovement and newly designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the State Department, claimed responsibility for the third suicide bombing in three days.

In a statement, the Israeli 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.

Three other Palestinian deaths were reported on Friday.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops shot dead an armed man approaching a crossing point with Israel, military sources said.

In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, a four-year-old Palestinian girl died a day after being hit by Israeli gunfire, Palestinian hospital officials said. Military sources said troops had fired in the area after coming under grenade attack.

And a Palestinian shepherd was shot dead after being detained by Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Nablus, his family and local medics said. The army said it had shot dead a man in the area after spotting him planting a bomb on a road.

Violence has raged since a Palestinian revolt 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.

Zinni, a former Marine Corps general, revived US Middle East diplomacy this month after a drastic surge in the bloodshed, which has killed at least 1,090 Palestinians and 355 Israelis since September 2000.

Zinni convened the Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs to try to salvage his truce mission, battered the day before by a Palestinian suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem that killed three Israelis and wounded over 40.

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.

PALESTINIAN MILITANTS SHRUG OFF ARAFAT

Militant commanders on Friday dismissed Arafat's call for calm to avoid undermining Zinni, saying their acts were legitimate responses to army killings of Palestinian civilians, particularly in a recent offensive into self-rule zones.

Arafat, described by aides as angry over suicide attacks which he felt impaired the Palestinian cause for independence, said the Palestinian leadership remained committed to making a success of Zinni's third attempt to pin down a truce.

In Washington, a State Department official said Powell had told Arafat by telephone he must punish the leaders of groups responsible for recent attacks and called on him "to condemn today's acts publicly and personally in the strongest manner."

Palestinian officials say, however, that the Israeli army's destruction of Palestinian security infrastructure, closures of towns and clampdowns on main roads have made it difficult for Palestinian security services to track down and jail militants.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said earlier that Israel had posed unacceptable conditions for activating a cease-fire plan charted in June 2001 by US CIA Director George Tenet.

Erekat did not elaborate. But Israeli political sources said differences touched on a timetable for realizing the truce and progressing to a broader US-backed plan for defusing mutual mistrust and resuscitating talks on a final peace settlement.

"We expressed our willingness to implement Tenet's plan as it was written and not according to Israeli conditions and dictation," Erekat told reporters.

Tenet's plan envisions a cease-fire, an Israeli army pullback to positions held before the start of the uprising and arrests of militants by Arafat's security services.