RAMALLAH, Aug 8: Talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials on an Israeli security plan to tackle the 22-month conflict “failed, as Israel imposed new conditions,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, a close aide to Yasser Arafat, said on Thursday.

“Israel went back on its position of Monday under which the security plan would also be applied to Bethlehem after Gaza, saying it would only be applied to Gaza, and adding many new conditions,” the aide to the Palestinian leader said after Wednesday’s meeting. He gave no further details.

The Palestinian cabinet had earlier given a tentative green light to an Israeli plan titled “Gaza First” during an emergency session.

The plan presented on Monday by Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer to newly-appointed Palestinian interior minister Abdelrazak al-Yahya at a meeting in Jerusalem broadly set out an Israeli withdrawal from re-occupied land in return for a crackdown on militants.

“The leadership decided to agree with this plan as it is the first step of a comprehensive withdrawal from the re-occupied territories and a return to the borders of 28 September 2000,” when the Palestinian uprising broke out, public works minister Azzem al-Ahmed said Wednesday.

The plan, to be first applied in Gaza, would then have been applied in Bethlehem in the West Bank where police had been told after Monday’s meeting to prepare to resume their functions.

A member of the Palestinian Authority Zyad Abu Zyad on Thursday called for an end to Palestinian attacks in Israel in an interview on Israeli public radio.

“The attacks on civilians in Israel must stop immediately. We must keep this goal in sight so as to be able to resume negotiations,” he said speaking in Hebrew.

“The attacks must stop so that the situation can get back to normal and a ceasefire can be established.” The Islamic hardline movement Hamas stressed Wednesday that it rejected the plan which it said tried to “sow the seeds of chaos, internal divisions and civil war” among Palestinians.

END TO ATTACKS: Palestinian deputy Zyad Abu Zyad called Thursday for an immediate halt to Palestinian attacks inside Israel, in an interview with Israeli public radio.

“The attacks on civilians in Israel must stop immediately. We must keep this goal in sight so as to be able to resume negotiations,” he said, speaking in Hebrew.

“The attacks must stop so that the situation can get back to normal and a ceasefire can be established.”

Asked if the Palestinian Authority could ensure calm if Israeli forces withdrew from Palestinian areas they have re-occupied in the 22-month conflict, the former minister for Jerusalem affairs said: “It’s possible, if the Palestinian Authority is allowed to act.

“Palestinian forces cannot act if they are limited by the blockade and if they are targeted by the Israeli army. They could not be immediately operational in 24 hours because they will need time to re-organise,” he said.

He said the Palestinian Authroity could convince the hardline Islamic movement Hamas to stop its frequent and devastating attacks on Israel “without making arrests.”

Abu Ziad was talking after security talks between Israel and the Palestinians failed to agree on a deal for the Israelis to pull out of some re-occupied areas. The Palestinian cabinet had earlier agreed in principle to the Israeli proposal, which would be tried out in the Gaza Strip.

IRAQI VOLUNTEERS: Around 15,000 volunteers of the “Jerusalem Army” on Thursday staged a military parade in Baghdad, which is mobilising people in anticipation of a US military campaign to topple President Saddam Hussein.

In military uniform and carrying guns, the volunteers, both male and female, marched down the main street of central Baghdad’s Al-Mansur district.

The parade, which lasted 90 minutes, came as Iraq marked the 14th anniversary of its “victory” over Iran in the 1980-88 war.

Some of the volunteers carried banners reading “Down with America! On your orders, Saddam!”, while others waved Iraqi and Palestinian flags as well as giant portraits of Saddam Hussein.

“We are always ready to face up to an American attack,” said Aziz Saleh al-Numan, a Baath party member taking part in the parade.

“Our cause is just, and the lies and bragging of the Americans and British do not scare us,” Numan told journalists.

Iraq has announced that 6.5 million Iraqis have been mobilised to “liberate Palestine” — and are waiting for Arab states bordering Israel to open their frontiers.—AFP