World

Barak's Honeymoon Ends

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 2, 1999 / 7:27 AM EDT / CBS

Yasser ArafatÂ's Palestinian Authority on Monday rejected an Israeli proposal to resume a West Bank troop pullback in October, saying such a delay raises concerns that Israel's new prime minister is trying to wriggle out of some of his peace commitments.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Barak expressed frustration with the PalestiniansÂ' unwillingness to explore revisions to existing peace deals.

The sense of a first real crisis in renewed peace efforts emerged after Sunday's meeting between his envoy, attorney Gilead Sher, and the Palestinians' chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat.

Erekat complained that Sher only reiterated what Barak had told Arafat a week earlier -- that Israel would like to skip over one of two West Bank troop pullbacks mandated by the Wye River accord to avoid creating flashpoints for violence.

BarakÂ's office accused the Palestinians of Â"reacting with rigidityÂ" to an Israeli plan to fold the thorniest part of Wye -- a land handover that would isolate Jewish settlements -- into negotiations to determine the final arrangements for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Barak believes a delay in the final stage -- under which several Jewish settlements would be isolated -- would prevent friction in the volatile West Bank that could harm chances to conclude a permanent peace deal.

The Palestinians have repeatedly turned down BarakÂ's proposal and insisted on an immediate implementation of the interim Wye accord, under which Israel is to hand over a bit more than 13 percent of the West Bank.

Palestinian legislator Ziad Abu Ziad said that in Sunday's meeting, the Israelis proposed beginning the first Wye pullback in October -- Israeli media gave the starting date as Oct. 1 and then withdrawing from five percent of the West Bank.

Â"For him (Barak) to offer to start implementation in October and to set a new timetable is not acceptable,Â" said Abu Ziad.

The Wye accord was to have been implemented over a period of three months, ending in January of this year.

Barak's hard-line predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, suspended the accord after the first stage, a troop pullback from two percent of the West Bank. Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of reneging on security commitments, but the halt was widely attributed to a domestic political crisis.

In a statement by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Arafat reiterated his stance against any delays in carrying out Wye.

Abu Ziad said there was concern that Israel was trying to get out of some of its obligations.

Â"We hope that the Israeli behavior is only tactical and that the Israeli government in the end will implement the agreement,Â" he said.

Erekat and his fellow negotiator, Mohammed Dahlan, left late Sunday for Cairo to consult with Arafat, who was holding talks there with members of a hardline PLO faction.

A permanent peace accord was to have been negotiated by May, at the end of a five-year inteim period of Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Another disputed issue is the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel on charges of anti-Israeli activities. Under the Wye accord, 750 prisoners are to be released in three stages. Netanyahu freed 250, but the Palestinians complained that most of those freed were petty criminals, not political activists.

Israel is considering easing criteria for the release of security prisoners, Beilin said.

Israel Radio said Barak is offering to release 250 security prisoners before completion of their terms if Arafat agrees to postpone implementation of the Wye accords.

However, the prime minister's office denied that any such offer has been made.