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Barak & Arafat order commanders to pull back |
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October 6, 2000
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - Moving to curb the bloodshed on the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ordered military commanders to separate their forces at three flash points in the weeklong confrontation between their peoples, a U.S. offical said Thursday. The orders were issued simultaneously by Barak and Arafat, even as the death toll mounted, during 10 hours of discussions in Paris with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said senior American mediator Dennis B. Ross. The three areas are the Netzarim junction in northern Gaza, Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on the West Bank and the Circle area of Ramallah, also on the West Bank. Ross spoke to reporters as Albright flew to this Egyptian resort on the Red Sea for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arafat. "Both sides were very clear in terms of each trying to focus on key flash points, trying to avoid trouble in those areas, and effecting a separation in those areas," Ross said. Barak flew home from Paris amid Israeli reports of a breakdown of efforts to defuse tensions. "As a result of a certain position of France, this did not contribute to creating the appropriate atmosphere which would have made it possible to initial the security understandings," said Danny Yatom, Barak's political and security adviser. Barak and Arafat failed to agree on a formula for investigating the causes of the renewed fighting. Arafat wanted an international inquiry, while Barak preferred a joint Palestinian-Israeli probe, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Albright said the Paris talks produced progress toward restoration of order. Barak and Arafat agreed to work to end the violence, she said, and CIA Director George Tenet will assist them. "The best thing here is to make sure there is calm," she said. Mubarak, who has a reputation for evenhandedness and moderation, said he hoped wisdom and reason would prevail. But, he said, "No peace can be durable if any party was coerced to surrender his rights and if Muslim sanctuaries in Jerusalem were undermined." He spoke on the 27th anniversary of the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel. Mubarak called for an Arab summit this month to deal with "the worsening situation in the Palestinian territories and to discuss the future of the Middle East peace process," Safwat al-Sherif, Egypt's minister of information, told reporters. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa angrily denounced Israel for what he termed "the shooting of the children" and called on Barak to prohibit all visits by Israeli officials to a key site in Jerusalem that is sacred to Muslims and Jews. The new wave of violence began after Likud leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount and Al Aqsa mosque compound. "Such a visit by Mr. Sharon should not happen again, by Sharon or any other official or nonofficial because of the seriousness of the situation," Moussa said. At a joint news conference with Albright, Moussa said Barak should have attended the Sharm el-Sheik meeting. "What is going on in Jerusalem is unacceptable," he said. Israeli Transportation Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, one of the negotiators in Paris, had told Army radio in Israel earlier that Arafat had instructed his people in the field to stop the violence. "It's a considerable step which could permit a return to calm I hope with all my heart, in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem," French President Jacques Chirac said in Paris. "On the fundamentals, progress was made and measures drawn up aiming to a ceasing of the violence, which was obviously a precondition to the resumption of the necessary and inevitable peace process." |