The Israeli army said on Monday that a gas tanker explosion in Ramallah might have targeted US envoy Anthony Zinni who was due to pass in the arae to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, according to Haaretz.
The Tel Aviv-based paper reported that a Palestinian truck carrying gas containers exploded Monday afternoon in the neighborhood of El Balouah, in the West bank town of Ramallah, killing its driver. According to preliminary investigation the truck was probably booby trapped. It said that the Israeli army was considering two possibilities: that Palestinians intended to hurt Israeli soldiers who are in El Baluah, following an Israeli takeover of parts of the neighborhood; or that the explosion was connected to the truce mission of US special Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni. Zinni was to pass through the area shortly before the explosion occurred to meet Arafat. He was stalled and passed through the area later. According to Palestinians, the individual killed was a Palestinian Gas Company employee and the explosion was an accident.
The US embassy stated that the explosion had nothing to do with Zinni, said the paper.
Israel on Monday said it hoped Zinni would stay on in the region to help broker a truce with the Palestinians, despite a 48-hour ultimatum he gave both sides the previous day.Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with the retired Marine Corps general to try to convince him to remain, after Zinni threatened to quit if Palestinian-Israeli “violence” continued escalating, a statement issued by Sharon's office said, quoted by AFP.
Sharon said he would do all he could to allow Zinni to succeed in quelling the current conflagration in the conflict, acknowledging the importance of Zinni's role in the region.
And the secretary general of the Palestinian presidency, Tayyeb Abdel Rahim, late Sunday urged Zinni to stay on, saying the Palestinian Authority "is ready to deploy all the efforts and to cooperate for his mission to succeed.""It is necessary for the mission to continue ... because its end will mean the victory of extremists on both sides," he added.Palestinian and Israeli security officials failed to make headway in what was their second meeting in four days, but the two sides have said the talks will resume on Tuesday.A Palestinian security official has stressed that Zinni's warning to halt violence applied to both sides, said the agency – Albawaba.com
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