The U.S. has dropped demands that the Palestinian Authority dismantle armed groups immediately, the New York Times reported on Saturday, quoting Bush administration officials.
According to these officials, the US administration is concerned that the authority's security forces are too weak at this point to carry out a swift crackdown.
According to the newspaper, due to the decline in the number of attacks on Israeli targets and the increased support for Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas among Palestinians, the U.S. has accepted the truce agreement, which was previously belittled by Israeli and U.S. officials as a poor substitute for tough actions against Palestinian activists.
"Both sides now think the cease-fire is a good idea and the early Israeli skepticism has changed," the paper quoted a senior administration official as saying.
He said one advantage of the cease-fire was to give Abbas time to build up and consolidate his security forces for a campaign against armed groups.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
