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Saeb Erekat stressed that Israel’s military policies of targeted killings and deportations was a poison |
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, August 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israelis
and the Palestinians were set Thursday, August 15, to hold security
talks a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met with chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Israelis
and the Palestinians will discuss a phased Israeli withdrawal from
some occupied areas, but Palestinians say Israel’s targeted killings
and planned deportations are poisoning talks, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
Defense
Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer was to meet Palestinian interior
minister Abdel Razaq Al-Yahya to discuss the “Gaza First”
withdrawal plan, Israeli public radio said.
The
plan for a staged withdrawal from recently reoccupied areas in the
Gaza Strip in exchange for a Palestinian crackdown on resistance
groups there was first presented during a Jerusalem meeting between
the two men on August 5.
The
Palestinians rejected it, arguing Israel had set new conditions in the
meantime.
The
Palestinians fear that the proposal might become “Gaza Only,” with
Israel taking credit for pulling back while sealing its grip on the
West Bank, and they want guarantees that Israel will also withdraw
from areas in the West Bank, AFP said.
The
meeting, whose participants both sides refused to confirm, comes a day
after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met with chief Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday, August 14.
Erekat
described Wednesday’s talks with the Israeli delegation as “a
comprehensive and serious meeting” but he stressed that Israel’s
military policies of targeted killings and deportations was a poison.
“It
was a comprehensive and serious meeting where we discussed economic
and political issues,” Erekat told AFP.
Peres
and minister without portfolio Danny Naveh met with Erakat and other
senior officials to discuss a range of practical issues.
High
on the agenda was the trial of Marwan Barghuti, the West Bank leader
of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, who was on
Wednesday put on trial in a Tel Aviv court for murder and terrorism,
AFP said.
“Marwan
Barghuti’s trial was the first point in our meeting. We said that
not only the arrests of Barghuti and (PLO committee member) Abdul
Rahim Mallouh, but Israel’s policy of assassinations and
deportations was a poison which was causing an escalation,” he said.
Regarding
Israel’s announcement that it was to hand over 70 million shekels
(15 million dollars) worth of frozen funds to the Palestinians early
next week, Erekat confirmed he had “received a promise” that the
funds would be released.
“An
additional 70 million shekels will be transferred to the Palestinians
at the start of the week, probably on Monday,” foreign ministry
spokeswoman Yaffa Ben Ari said.
The
Palestinian Authority received a first payment last month for a
similar sum of customs duties and taxes withheld from the Palestinians
by Israel over the past two years of fighting.
The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates the money owed by Israel
to the Palestinian Authority at more than 600 million dollars.
The
two sides also spoke about the creation of a Palestinian state, Erekat
said.
“We
said this is still a vision but we don’t see anything serious on the
ground,” he said.
As
violence dragged on in the Palestinian territories, reports emerged in
the Israeli press that Israel could drop nuclear weapons on Iraq if
Baghdad used non-conventional weapons on the Jewish state during a
possible U.S. attack on the regime of Saddam Hussein.
“If
Iraq strikes at Israel with non-conventional weapons, causing massive
casualties among the civilian population, Israel could respond with a
nuclear retaliation that would eradicate Iraq as a country,” the
Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aretz said, quoting a U.S.
intelligence report.
“Such
an Israeli reaction could destroy Iraq as a state,” said Ha’aretz,
quoting the report.
