|
U.S. Peace Envoy Calls for Change as Six More Die
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 28 (News Agencies) - U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni said Wednesday after meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that it was "time for change" in the strife-torn Middle East, a day after six more people were killed in continuing violence.
"I think it's time for change. I'm convinced both sides have to make a commitment," said the retired Marine Corps general at a news conference after the meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "We need to end the violence and we need to get back on track towards peace. I think it is important for everyone, for all citizens to commit."
Zinni said discussions had been "positive."
For his part, Arafat said he was "going to make 100% effort" toward securing a ceasefire, the key goal of the mission by Zinni and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns.
He described the meeting with Zinni and Burns, held not long after the shooting deaths of three Israelis and three Palestinians in two separate incidents, as "intensive and important."
He also thanked U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell for their public backing of an independent Palestinian state.
Arafat received the envoys together with his right-hand man in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Mahmud Abbas, parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat.
Before visiting Ramallah, the Americans were given a car tour of the West Bank, taking in Palestinian refugee camps and Jewish settlements on occupied land, one of the main targets of the Palestinian uprising.
They had toured Israel's borders the day before in an Israeli helicopter accompanied by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The envoys had the chance to view the crisis first-hand when they flew over the northern town of Afula just minutes after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israelis and injured 34 there. The gunmen were also shot dead.
Both gunmen were members of the Palestinian security services, one of them from an armed branch of Arafat's own Fatah movement.
In the other incident, a 22-year-old Hamas member was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after he opened fire on a convoy traveling on a restricted road near a Jewish settlement in Gaza, killing a 45-year-old woman and injuring three others.
Hamas had vowed swift revenge for last week's Israeli assassination of its top military leader, Mahmud Abu Hannud, in a rocket attack.
The killings were denounced by the Palestinian Authority, which said in a statement it "strongly condemns the two attacks... which targeted Israeli civilians," according to a BBC online report.
Zinni and Burns are tasked with finding ways of bringing both sides back to a lasting ceasefire.
The head of Palestinian preventative security in the West Bank, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, said the U.S. visit presented a "very important opportunity for everyone to exit the ongoing cycle of violence.
"There's an agreement among the Americans, the Europeans, the Arabs, everybody, that there should be a solution, because the conflict endangers the stability of the whole region."
He said the U.S. envoys should pressure Israel to stop its incursions into Palestinian land and end its policy of assassinating wanted activists whom Israel claims the Palestinians have refused to arrest.
Groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, along with splinter factions of his own Fatah movement, have ignored a truce deal Arafat concluded with Israel in September, and kept up their strikes on Israel.
Efraim Kam, deputy director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Tuesday's attacks put Arafat in a tight spot.
"Both terrorist acts put Arafat in quite a difficult position, because the timing is bad for him. It happens every week, but exactly on the day that General Zinni started his meetings ... I believe it made some impression," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A senior Israeli defense ministry official, meanwhile, charged that the Palestinian attacks resulted not from a "lack of power, or ability, but a lack of desire to control the area" by Arafat.
Russia added its voice to calls for Arafat to back up his words with action, with the foreign ministry saying Palestinian leaders should "do all they can to stop extremists from committing such crimes in the future."
It also called on Israel to "refrain from responding to the provocation" of the attacks.
Sharon, who spent hours explaining to Zinni and Burns his security concerns Tuesday, insists on seven days of total calm before moving ahead with a key peace plan prepared by an international committee and endorsed by both sides.
Under the Mitchell plan, Arafat agreed to jail extremists, while Israel promised to freeze Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
|
