US special envoy Anthony Zinni said after meeting Wednesday with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that it was "time for change" in the war-torn Middle East, where Palestinians are engaged in a 14-month rebellion against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, said reports.
"I think it's time for change. I'm convinced both sides have to make a commitment," said the retired Marine Corps general Wednesday at a news conference after the meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah, according to AFP.
Prior to the meeting, the two US “mediators” got an eyeful of the kinds of conflict the region is witnessing.
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and Zinni were flying over Israel and the West Bank in a helicopter with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Tuesday when news came through of an attack by two Palestinians at Afula which killed two Israelis, said CNN.
Sharon directed the helicopter over Afula, where the envoys saw police dealing with the aftermath of the attack, said the news network.
Zinni and Burns later met Arafat and other Palestinian officials for iftar, the meal which Muslims take to break the dawn-to-dusk fast during the holy month of Ramadan, according to AFP.
The US has taken a renewed role in Mideast diplomacy since the Sept. 11 attacks in which several thousand people were killed by terrorists linked to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. Washington is keen to rally Arab states behind its war on terrorism.
However, many analysts have said the new US effort is unlikely to produce much. Israelis are suspicious of American criticism of their settlements on Palestinian land, while Palestinians are wary of an “impartial broker” that supplies Tel Aviv with billions in military aid.
NEGOTIATIONS DESPITE FIGHTING
At the table with US mediators, the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper said the Palestinians were expected to reassert their long-running plea that international observers be sent to the Occupied Territories.
However, the United States has repeatedly helped Israel block such requests at the UN level.
Reports have also said that Palestinian negotiators will almost certainly raise the issue of Israeli settlements on huge swathes of land seized from Palestinian owners in 1967.
According to the UK-based magazine The Economist, Israel has “flouted” the 1993 Oslo peace accords by moving tens of thousands of its citizens onto Palestinian land. Analysts say the movement of the “settlers,” many of them armed, has constituted an enormous stumbling block to peace negotiations.
Haaretz also said the Palestinians would likely reiterate their opposition to Sharon's demand for seven days of absolute calm before instituting the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission on bringing an end to the clashes and returning to peace talks.
Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday quoted Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer as indicating that Israel might agree to lifting its seven-day pre-condition, but, he was quoted as adding, "only if Arafat changes his attitude," said the paper.
Israel blames Arafat’s Palestinian Authority for not cracking down hard enough on resistance groups, despite warnings by its own army that the PA is already teetering on the brink of ceding popular support to a huge, desperation-fuelled uprising in areas like the Gaza Strip.
The PA condemned the Afula attack on Tuesday, in which two Palestinians armed with automatic rifles ran through the center of town, firing in all directions, before police cornered them and shot them dead. Two Israelis were killed and 14 wounded, four seriously, said CNN, although previous reports put the wounded figure at up to 50.
The attack followed the Israeli army’s admission that it had planted a bomb that killed five Palestinian schoolboys in the Gaza Strip.
Over 700 Palestinians and more than 190 Israelis have been killed in the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of military occupation – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
