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Palestinian, Israeli security officials meet CIA chief

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January 8, 2001 

CAIRO-- (UNB/AP) - Palestinians and Israelis traded accusations about who is to blame for continuing violence Sunday as senior Palestinian and Israeli security officials met with an American mediator in Egypt to discuss how to bring calm to the area.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak insisted that he will not discuss American compromise peace proposals any further unless the Palestinian Authority reduces the level of violence. Palestinian security officials said they can do nothing to quell the unrest until Israel lifts a blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip imposed in response to the fighting.

Palestinians also have called on Israel to stop targeting leaders of the uprising that began in late September in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians say more than a dozen of their leaders have been assassinated; Israel says what it calls pinpoint killings are a legitimate weapon in the fight against terrorism.

More than three months of Israeli-Palestinian clashes have left 359 people dead, nearly all of them Palestinians. But unrest has decreased in recent days.

In an indication of the sensitivity of the talks in Egypt, officials divulged little about them. Egyptian officials would not say exactly where the meeting was held or divulge any details about the issues to be discussed.

U.S and Israeli embassy officials said they had no information. Participating in the meeting was George Tenet, head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Palestinian diplomats said the Palestinian side was represented by Amin el-Hindi, head of the intelligence service, Muhammad Dahlan head of the Preventive Security Department in Gaza and Jebril Rajoub his counterpart in the West Bank. Israel was represented by Avi Dichter, head of Shin Bet, and Maj. Gen. Shlomo Yannai.

Before leaving for Cairo, Dahlan told reporters the purpose of the meeting was to implement an agreement both sides reached in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt in October.

At the October summit brokered by U.S. President Bill Clinton in the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Israeli agreed to lift a blockade of the West Bank and Gaza and reopen the Gaza airport. Both Israeli and the Palestinian leaders also agreed to publicly call for peace and institute measures to separate the two sides at points of friction.

"The Palestinian delegation will press Israel to lift its siege of the Palestinian towns and stop its aggression and assassinations," Dahlan was quoted as saying by Egypt's Middle East News Agency.

Dahlan said the Palestinians wanted the Americana and Egyptians to "be witness to this meeting because the Israeli side has always failed to commit to the agreements."

In Jordan, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in remarks carried by the official Petra news agency that the security meeting "has nothing to do with halting the intefadeh," or Palestinian uprising.

"The intefadeh will continue," Nabil Abu Irdeneh said, adding the Palestinian team in Egypt would focus on pledges made in Sharm el-Sheik.

The radical Palestinian Hamas denounced the security meeting in Egypt, saying it was aimed at "abrogating the intefadeh, tracking down the militants and liquidating them to accomplish the enemy's task."

"Pursuing security cooperation with the Zionist enemy and American intelligence is a stab in the backs of our people and the intefadeh," Hamas said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Amman.