OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 21 July — The Palestinian Authority and
Israeli officials met yesterday to discuss measures to ease
conditions in the occupied territories, resuming a dialogue
interrupted by a bloody week of anti-Israeli attacks. Delegations
headed by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat met for the first high-level
talks in nearly two weeks, Israeli public radio said.
There was no word on the location of yesterday’s meeting, but
an Israeli official had said it would focus on measures to
alleviate sanctions imposed on the Palestinians. "We agreed
to give a low profile to these meetings due to the tense situation
which prevails following the latest terrorist attacks," said
the official, who asked not to be named.
"This meeting will not broach political issues but only
examine means of improving the life of the Palestinians and
assisting them without jeopardizing Israel’s security and
interests," the official added.
The Israeli radio had earlier reported that two close aides to
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon were headed to Washington for
security talks to follow up the latest round of international
diplomacy on the Middle East. Tensions were running high following
Palestinian bombings and a bus ambush that claimed 12 civilians’
lives and triggered Israeli threats to expel the families of those
responsible from their West Bank homes.
Israel launched another major crackdown on Palestinians a month
ago following a new spate of bombings, and has occupied seven out
of eight major towns in the West Bank while imposing stifling
curfews. Israel agreed to discuss the measures earlier this week
but the talks were scuttled by Tuesday’s bus ambush on the West
Bank that left nine Israelis dead and twin bombings Wednesday in
Tel Aviv that killed three civilians.
Officials of the Jewish state say they are ready to discuss a
relaxation of the sanctions but remain wary. "For example, we
are ready to give our green light to money transfers provided we
obtain guarantees that these funds will not be used to finance
terrorist activity and only to help the Palestinian
population," the Israeli official said.
The army announced yesterday it would lift the curfews on the
cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron for the day, to allow
residents to buy basic food supplies. In Ramallah, employees of
the Interior Ministry, which is located inside Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat’s besieged compound and is in charge of
issuing birth certificates, identity cards and passports, were
allowed to return to work for the first time in a month.
The Israeli-Palestinian talks will be the first since Peres met
with the new Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad and Interior
Minister Abdel Razaq Al-Yahya on July 8 and 9. Those were the
first high-level contacts in four months. Israeli radio said Dov
Weissglass, chief of staff of the prime minister’s office, and
Moshe Kaplinsky, Sharon’s former aide de camp, were heading to
Washington for talks with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice.
Meanwhile in Ramallah, Arafat discussed the same issues with
Russia’s Middle East envoy Andrei Vdovin, whose country took
part Tuesday in New York in the quartet meeting of diplomatic
powers seeking peace in the region. A controversy also continued
to rage over Sharon’s desire to expel family members of
Palestinian militants responsible for this week’s attacks from
their West Bank homes to the Gaza Strip.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan added his voice to the chorus
of condemnations, saying through a spokesman he was
"disturbed" by reports of the intended move and the
destruction of Palestinian homes. Arab League chief Amr Moussa
said the Israeli plan was an "aggression that has no place in
international law"
The Israeli Army arrested 21 close relatives of Palestinian
activists in the northern West Bank on Friday and threatened to
deport them in what was seen as a sign of Israel’s frustration
at failing to stem the attacks. But the expulsion plan has been
met by opposition from the United States, the European Union,
France and human rights groups, in addition to sparking
Palestinian fury and threats of bloody retaliation from Hamas and
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In another development, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was
due to host talks in Cairo to day with Libyan leader Col. Muammar
Qaddafi after returning from meetings with Arab leaders in Geneva,
sources close to the president said. Mubarak was expected to meet
with Qaddafi in Cairo to discuss the Middle East crisis and
Egyptian-Libyan ties, the sources close to Mubarak said.