The Israeli army has frozen a 250-million-dollar program aimed at reinforcing its permanent positions on the West Bank amid uncertainty over a possible peace deal with the Palestinians, military radio reported Tuesday.
The program would have entailed not only enlarging and reinforcing existing posts, but also improving the living conditions for soldiers stationed there, the report said.
It is widely thought that, in peace talks last week in the United States, US President Bill Clinton proposed an Israeli withdrawal from 95 percent of the West Bank.
Consequently, military commanders have decided it would be better to wait to see whether Israel's caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will accept US President Bill Clinton's last-ditch proposals for a long-term peace accord before investing in the program.
Clinton, who is trying to secure an agreement before he leaves office in January, has asked the two sides to deliver their verdicts on his proposals by Wednesday -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
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