Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman said Saturday that Israelis and Palestinians had resumed negotiations, with a third side acting as intermediary, Haaretz newspaper quoted him as saying.
However Abdul Rahman downplayed the importance of such talks, saying that “they must not be taken to seriously as they have so far not led to a breakthrough,” he said, cited as telling Palestine Radio.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan confirmed Rahman's statement, saying that there indeed were quiet talks taking place between the two sides, said the paper.
Annan said that “all the issues are entwined into one another, the violence, the Palestinian's economic crisis, and peace process itself, and that some measure of flexibility was required in order to deal with all of them.”
Within the same context, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres confirmed that he was holding secret negotiations with senior Palestinian officials, Israel Radio reported Saturday.
“It was decided not to hold larger scale negotiations until the violence ceases,” Haaretz quoted him as saying in an interview.
According to the paper, Peres did not respond to accusations made by Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer that it would be difficult to reach a peace agreement with the current Palestinian leadership.
When asked if he was disappointed with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, he replied that he was disappointed with “Arafat's mistakes.”
"I think Arafat has made mistakes and regrets them, but he is not always guilty when errors are committed," Peres added.
On Friday, Israeli Arab cabinet minister Saleh Tarif said that secret talks between the two sides were taking place.
But Israel’s Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh rejected such a claim, saying, "If there were such contacts they were not held with consent from Sharon or the government."
He added that "there is a need to differentiate between negotiations on substantial matters that will not be conducted while violence continues and contacts to bring about an end to the violence."
ISRAELI ARMY ENTERS PALESTINIAN LAND, DEMOLISHES BORDER POST NEAR GAZA
Despite diplomatic moves to halt the escalating situation in the Palestinian territories, Israeli tanks and an army bulldozer entered Palestinian-controlled land Saturday morning and demolished a Palestinian border post.
The nearby Gaza International Airport, near the border with Egypt, came under heavy fire in the attack, suffering bullet damage, officials said, cited by AFP.
After firing tank shells and machine-gun fire at the security post for more than four hours through the night, four tanks rolled about 300 meters into the southern Gaza Strip around 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) where a bulldozer demolished the border post, said southern Gaza Strip border force commander Jaber al-Ghneimi.
The tanks rolled a further 100 meters past the border post in a heavy exchange of gunfire with retreating Palestinian border forces before withdrawing to Israeli territory, Ghneimi said.
The border post was positioned approximately 300 meters from Gaza International Airport in Rafah, said the agency.
It was the third Palestinian security post to be destroyed in incursions by the Israeli army in a week.
A security post was destroyed near the Sufa border crossing near Rafah on Wednesday morning, and another was razed Tuesday night before the Israeli army withdrew from a 24-hour occupation of the Beit Hanun region in north Gaza.
On Friday, sixteen Palestinians, including a television journalist, were wounded by Israeli bullets in clashes around the occupied territories.
Palestinians Call For Quick UN Response to Israeli 'Aggression'
Palestinian leaders called Friday for quick action by the UN Security Council to prevent more Israeli "aggression" in the region, said AFP.
"The danger of an extension of Israeli aggression lingers and the Security Council must therefore urgently adopt a resolution imposing on Israel the application of Resolutions 242, 338 and 425," said a statement issued after the Palestinian leadership's weekly meeting, chaired by President Yasser Arafat.
Resolutions 242 and 338 call for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, while Resolution 425 calls on it to withdraw from Lebanon.
The Palestinian leadership, with included both the cabinet and the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, also reiterated a call for "international protection for the Palestinian people," said the statement, cited by the agency.
A Security Council resolution to send observers to the territories was blocked last month by the United States, which used its veto power for the first time in four years.
SHARON REJECTS ARAFAT'S OFFER FOR JOINT TV CALL AGAINST VIOLENCE
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday rejected as "insufficient" a proposal by Arafat that both leaders deliver public statements calling for a halt to the violence and a renewal of the negotiations, reported Haaretz.
Arafat transmitted his proposal to Sharon via the US congressional allocations committee delegation, headed by Arizona Republican Senator Jim Colby, which is visiting the region.
The delegation arrived in Jerusalem from Ramallah, and its members told Sharon about the message from Arafat, who said: "I am prepared to make a declaration now. Sharon and I will go together to the television."
In response, Sharon said: "the solution is not in making declarations. I do not need declarations from Arafat. ... The chairman must order his forces and take practical steps to halt the violence, terror and incitement," the paper quoted him as saying.
Sharon explained that he is demanding a complete halt to the violence, because if he demands only a reduction in the violence, there will be a basis for bargaining.
"If we demand a complete halt, we will get a significant reduction."
Sharon told the visiting members of Congress that Israel would conduct negotiations with the PA only after "a halt to the violence and terror and shooting of mortar shells, which is initiated and directed by the organizations and security forces completely under Arafat's control." - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
