The White House has ended the Central Intelligence Agency's role as a mediator between the Israeli and Palestinian security services, said reports Thursday.
The decision is aimed at promoting direct cooperation between both sides, reported the Washington Post newspaper.
“The move falls in line with US President George W. Bush's reappraisal of the US role in the Middle East peace process, which includes a more hands-off approach than the detailed bargaining that was common under former president Bill Clinton,” a US official told the Post.
Initial reaction at the CIA was one of relief, according to the paper.
"No one here is upset about missing out on the opportunity to engage," an unnamed CIA official told the Post.
CIA chief George Tenet, who met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week in Washington, has played a pivotal role until now in trying to facilitate the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, said The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
From the 1998 Wye River negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians until the outbreak of the Intifada, CIA officers routinely took part in meetings between the sides. Both sides used the CIA as a sounding board for complaints about the other's behavior, the Israeli paper said.
But even before Wye, the CIA began training Palestinians in intelligence gathering, interrogation, and tracking the funds of terrorist organizations, according to the paper.
That assistance too, seems to have been halted temporarily, at least until Israel and the Palestinians resume a security dialogue, said The Jerusalem Post.
"I won't try to pretend that we have excluded the possibility of assistance from our security authorities when it comes to support for things the parties themselves decide they want to do," a US official told the Israeli paper – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
