A rchive Date
[ 28-06-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/06/28/122286-ap.html
Islamic Jihad accepts truce
By JASON KEYSER
Sat, June 28, 2003
JERUSALEM (AP) - An Islamic Jihad leader said Saturday the group has accepted a conditional three-month halt to attacks on Israelis - the first on-the-record confirmation of the deal from a militant leader. "We have accepted a conditional ceasefire for three months," the leader, Mohammed al-Hindi, told The Associated Press.
Intensive meetings continued Saturday between Islamic Jihad, the larger Hamas group and Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction to work out the final wording of an official ceasefire declaration.
The Syrian-based leaders of the two Islamic groups had agreed to the truce earlier in the week. A formal announcement was expected Sunday, after the main parties bring 10 smaller factions on board and to add final touches to the document.
At least one Palestinian faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, appeared to be holding out as a Palestinian negotiator tried to persuade the group's jailed leader to accept the deal, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. Expectations were that the group would sign on.
A statement faxed to the AP in the name of another militia, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, said that group also had not yet committed itself to the ceasefire, apparently because there was no Israeli guarantee on the release of Palestinian prisoners. The statement, from some of the militia's local West Bank leaders, however, did not necessarily represent the views of the whole group.
The ceasefire has given a major push to a U.S.-sponsored peace initiative that got off to a rocky start because of continuing violence.
The "road map" plan for Palestinian statehood by 2005, launched by U.S. President George W. Bush on June 4, is the latest effort to end a generations-old conflict.
Hamas leaders have indicated that they've agreed to the truce, but they were waiting to declare formal acceptance in the joint declaration with all the parties.
"I believe that it will be a good document," said Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi on Friday. "It will serve the interest of the Palestinian people and will preserve Palestinian unity and the option of resistance."
In another sign that the peace effort was moving forward, Israel agreed Friday to pull troops out of parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The "road map" peace plan requires Israeli forces to pull back to positions held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000.
U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was to arrive Saturday to talk with Israelis and Palestinians about their next moves under the plan.
Friday's initial agreement on an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank town of Bethlehem came with a pledge by Israel to halt targeted killings of Palestinian militants, sources said. That is one of the Palestinian militants' key demands for going ahead with a ceasefire.
At its weekly Saturday meeting, Arafat's Fatah movement approved the agreement with the Israelis on a troop pullback. Rice planned to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas later Saturday in the West Bank desert oasis of Jericho. On Sunday, she is to meet Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Her weekend mission coincides with the expected formal announcement by militant groups Sunday that they are ending attacks.
The declaration would be a turning point in the 33 months of violence - although Israel has been skeptical of the truce idea, and it remains to be seen whether all militants will comply.
The developments, in line with the first phase of the peace plan, went ahead even though violence continued Friday - a raid by Israeli commandos searching unsuccessfully for a top Hamas bombmaker left four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier dead in the Gaza Strip.
Also Saturday, two explosive devices blew up, damaging at least one vehicle in a convoy of U.S. diplomatic cars travelling in Gaza, but injured no one, Israel's military said. U.S. embassy officials refused to comment.
Ahead of an Israeli troop withdrawal, which could come as early as Monday, a newly appointed U.S. envoy, John Wolf, was to assemble an American team to monitor the handover of control from Israel to the Palestinians, said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington. "We are pleased with the progress we have seen," Powell said.
The militant groups' truce document applies to settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza in addition to civilians in Israel, fulfilling a key Israeli demand.
In exchange, the Palestinian groups asked Israel to suspend targeted killings of militants and release prisoners.
Demanding prisoners be released, a crowd of Palestinian protesters confronted Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah Saturday, demanding that he pressure Israel to win prisoners' freedom.
Coming out of his office to speak to the noisy crowd, Abbas told them he would raise their demands with Rice. Surrounded by the crowd, Abbas demanded a loudspeaker, was handed one and shouted: "There will be no peace or security if even one Palestinian prisoner remains behind bars. Be sure that we will exert our utmost in order to empty all prisons of prisoners."
The deal on an Israeli pullback in Gaza and Bethlehem was reached in talks Friday between Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and Israel's Maj.-Gen. Amos Gilad. Technical details for the withdrawal were to be worked out in meetings Sunday.
Taking over security control of the areas Israel leaves, the Palestinians have agreed to act against what Israel calls "ticking bombs" - a reference to assailants on their way to attack Israelis, and the people who send them. "The Palestinian security apparatus is ready to take on this huge responsibility," Dahlan said.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the terms of the withdrawal had been deadlocked for several weeks, in part over who would control the main north-south road in Gaza.
Under Friday's deal, the road will remain open 24 hours a day and the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza will be open 12 hours a day, the Palestinians said.
Israel and the United States have given the ceasefire a lukewarm welcome, preferring instead to see militant groups dismantled, as the road map requires. There seemed to be a change in tone among Israeli officials Friday. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said an end to attacks would be welcome, adding that "I hope it happens."
"But it doesn't diminish the Palestinian obligation under the road map to dismantle Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including imprisoning their leaders and giving their weapons to a third party," he said.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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