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Arafat wants truce with Israel
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/09/17 16:00  Shanghai Daily

  Yasser Arafat wants to reach a truce with Israel, his national security adviser said yesterday, but Israeli officials brushed aside the offer, demanding instead that the Palestinian Authority crack down on militant groups.

  Arafat himself struck a conciliatory tone, but stopped short of making a specific cease-fire offer. "We say to the peace supporters in Israel that we extend our hand to you to revive peace," Arafat said in a speech to about 2,500 Palestinians at his battered West Bank headquarters.

  Meantime, it is reported that the United States will not deduct money Israel spends on Jewish settlements and a West Bank security barrier from a first installment of a US9 million loan guarantee package, an Israeli official said yesterday.

  The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said deductions for settlement spending would be made from later installments.

  The official spoke as US Treasury Secretary John Snow visited the region.

  Snow met on Monday night with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad and the Palestinian economy and planning ministers. Yesterday, he was to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

  In the West Bank town of Dura, meanwhile, Israeli troops killed an Islamic militant fugitive in an arrest raid, witnesses and the army said. Such raids have triggered revenge bombings by Islamic militants in the past.

  Arafat and his designated prime minister Ahmed Qureia are not in touch with the Israeli government on a proposed truce, officials said yesterday. But there are high-level contacts between the Palestinian Authority and the militant group Hamas on a new cease-fire, said a senior Palestinian official.

  Palestinian officials have said they were given to understand by the United States that it backs the idea of a mutual truce, provided it is followed by some action against the militants, such as a weapons roundup.

  Hamas has been weakened in recent weeks, both by Israel's targeted killings of leaders and fugitives and by attempts by the United States, the European Union and the Palestinian Authority to stop the flow of funds to the group.

  Arafat's national security adviser, Brigadier General Jibril Rajoub, said yesterday that the Palestinians would soon propose to the Israeli government a more comprehensive - and permanent - cease-fire, but warned it would only work if both sides agreed to it.

  "There must be a mutual cease-fire based on an end to violence on both sides, Israelis ending their aggression against the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority implementing a cease-fire in its territories," Rajoub said.

  Rajoub also made his proposal on Israel Radio, saying: "I turn in a clear and straight manner to every resident and citizen in the state of Israel ... your concerns are the concerns of every Palestinian, but we are living under occupation ... the terrorist infrastructure is the occupation."

  Rajoub said there were no contacts yet between Israeli and Palestinian officials on the issue.




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