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Diplomats Press Palestinians on Terror

Posted on: Friday, 2 April 2004, 06:00 CST

JERUSALEM - American diplomats told Palestinians that a planned Israeli pull out from Gaza brings a chance to revive a stalled peace initiative Thursday, while Israel's prime minister threatened Yasser Arafat and a Lebanese guerrilla chief.

The U.S. envoys met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in the West Bank town of Jericho to discuss Israel's pull out plan and "road map" peace plan, asserting that progress would depend on a Palestinian crackdown on militants. The team then had two hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but no details were disclosed.

Hours later, Israeli tanks entered the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, looking for tunnels, the military said.

Palestinians said a 19 year-old man was killed in heavy exchanges of fire. Hospital officials identified him as Mohammed Abed. It was not clear if he was a militant or a civilian.

Sharon, meanwhile, said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Lebanese guerrilla chief Hassan Nasrallah could become targets for assassination, his most explicit threats yet against his arch foes.

He also gave a first hint of a timetable for a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and said Israel would in parallel evacuate four West Bank settlements, the first time he has specified an exact number.

Sharon told the Maariv daily that he hopes that by the spring of 2005, "we will be in the midst of disengagement, because disengagement is good for Israel."

Sharon's comments came in newspaper interviews published Friday ahead of next week's Passover holiday.

Asked by Haaretz whether Arafat and Nasrallah are targets for assassination, Sharon said: "I wouldn't suggest that either of them feel immune ... Anyone who kills a Jew or harms an Israeli citizen, or sends people to kill Jews, is a marked man. Period."

Sharon told Maariv that Arafat "has no insurance policy." Sharon added that "today, everyone knows Arafat is the obstacle (blocking) any progress."

Arafat has been confined to his West Bank headquarters for more than two years. Several months ago Israel's Cabinet declared that Arafat is responsible for violence and should be "removed."

Sharon has proposed pulling Israeli troops and settlers out of Gaza and small parts of the West Bank. He says the Palestinian government is not a partner for peace talks and that a unilateral withdrawal is necessary to protect Israeli interests.

The American team is in the region to discuss Sharon's plan, which he will present to President Bush in Washington on April 14.

The Palestinians want assurances the plan will be the first step toward a larger withdrawal from the West Bank, while Israel is seeking American support for limits on future Palestinian demands.

After Thursday's meeting, Qureia said he would welcome an Israeli pullback from Gaza, but only if it is part of the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

The road map aims to bring about an independent Palestinian state by next year but has been stalled for months amid violations by Israel and the Palestinians.

Qureia said he sought assurances the Gaza plan would not prejudice future talks on a permanent settlement, including the status of the West Bank and Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees who claim property in what is now Israel.

"Unilateralism is not the solution," Qureia said. "The only thing that will help and bring forth Palestinian commitments is to negotiate with the Palestinians."

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the Americans believe Sharon's plan is an opportunity to revive the road map. "They see it as part of the road map, and not as a substitute to the road map," he said.

However, he said, the U.S. diplomats made it clear they expect the Palestinians to honor their road map obligations - particularly the requirement to dismantle violent groups that have killed hundreds of Israelis in the past three years.

The American diplomats - White House officials Steve Hadley and Elliot Abrams, and State Department Mideast envoy William Burns - did not comment after the meeting. But earlier, American officials said they would be telling both sides that Sharon's plan has to be consistent with the road map.

"We don't see unilateral disengagement as a replacement for the road map. It's a way to jump start the road map," one official said on condition of anonymity.

Israel officially remains committed to the road map. But it, too, has failed to meet its interim obligations of freezing settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli officials have held a series of meetings in Washington recently, seeking U.S. guarantees in return for the Gaza pullout. Among the requests: recognition of some Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank and assurances that a Palestinian state will resolve the refugee problem.

Sharon faces considerable opposition, both within his government and from the Israeli public, to his withdrawal plan. Earlier this week, Sharon announced a binding referendum among the 200,000 members of his Likud Party on the plan. Initial polls suggest a pullback would win narrow approval.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority implemented a long-awaited reform Thursday, directly depositing the salaries of its security officers in their bank accounts rather than giving them to security chiefs to dole out in cash.

The move had been demanded by Western donors for years as a key reform to reduce the power of security chiefs and to prevent them from skimming millions of dollars from the Palestinian Authority.

"This is very important. We can now say that we have an unprecedented system of paying salaries through banks," said Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a respected former World Bank official who has spent the past two years sorting out Palestinian finances.

Western diplomats welcomed the reform. One diplomat, who has been following the process critically, called it a major achievement that will go a long way toward restoring donor goodwill.

Police, meanwhile, arrested 14 Israelis trying to rebuild a West Bank settlement outpost demolished Wednesday by the army. Israel is supposed to remove dozens of such outposts under the road map, but has taken little action. The army also arrested five Israelis protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A U.N. agency said it was suspending food aid to 600,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza because of increased Israeli restrictions at a crossing. Israel instituted new procedures after two Palestinian suicide bombers were smuggled through the crossing and blew themselves up at Israel's Ashdod port, killing 10 Israelis.

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