RAMALLAH: With Israeli tanks and jackhammers silent, a quieter siege set in Monday at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s ruined headquarters, now ringed by rubble and thick coils of barbed wire. An armed assault shifted into a paper war, with Israelis and Palestinians arguing over lists, or the lack of them, of alleged terror suspects.
The two sides held their first face-to-face meetings since Israel surrounded Arafat’s executive compound, known as the Muqata, and destroyed all but the one building that houses the Palestinian Authority president and about 250 aides, guards and other workers. No progress was reported in that meeting, nor in a series of meetings and phone calls involving Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nations special envoy to the Middle East.
“There’s not much movement,” said a diplomatic source close to the talks. “We could be here for weeks.”
He added that the UN envoy is growing concerned about living conditions in the compound, whose occupants are crowded together in a few rooms, with periodic water shortages, a lack of air conditioning and a severe shortage of toilet facilities. The Israeli military has sent in food and extra underwear, among other supplies.
The UN Security Council discussed the standoff on Monday in a meeting to consider a Palestinian draft resolution blaming Israel for an upsurge in violence over the past two years. US Ambassador John Negroponte countered with a proposal that called for the Palestinians to halt suicide bombings, but also demanded that Israel stop its siege of Arafat’s headquarters.
Senior US government officials called Sharon to express President Bush’s concern over Israel’s weekend actions in Ramallah, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said en route to Trenton, N.J., with Bush for a political fund-raiser.
“The president views what Israel is doing now as unhelpful to the cause of bringing about reform in Palestinian institutions,” Fleischer said. “The president’s priority is peace. Peace has been secured by new Palestinian institutions. And what Israel is doing is running contrary to that cause. It is not helpful.”
Israel moved against the Muqata on Thursday, hours after a suicide bomber killed six civilians on a bus in Tel Aviv, the latest of many such attacks carried out by Palestinian militants in the past two years.
The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon initially said the attack was intended to isolate Arafat, but later began demanding that the Palestinians turn over 19 men, said to be among those trapped inside the compound, who are wanted for terror-related crimes.
Like so many aspects of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians, that demand has turned out to be far more complicated than it might seem. First, the Palestinians complained that they were given no list of names. Israeli officials said none was needed. “Everybody knows who these people are,” said Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissen.
Then the number of suspects ballooned to 50, according to a senior Israeli military officer who is commanding the operation at Arafat’s headquarters. The officer said the number rose after the interrogation of other Palestinians who abandoned the headquarters complex in the first hours of the siege. Thirty- eight men surrendered initially, half of them prisoners in the Palestinian jail that was part of the compound. Of the 38, five were held, he said, and the others “went home.”
Arafat said he had no intention of turning anyone in. The Israelis countered by asking for a list of everyone in the compound — a request the Palestinians dismissed as a fishing expedition.
“My position was: Cut it out,” said Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian’s chief negotiator, who met on Monday with Israeli Brigadier Gen. Eival Giladi to discuss ways to end the siege, and was presented with the demand for a full accounting of those in the compound. He also was allowed into the compound to meet with Arafat.
The Israelis have publicly named only four people who are accused of terrorist activity and assumed to be in the compound. Chief among them is Tawfik Tarawi, the Palestinian head of intelligence in the West Bank, who, according to the Israel Defence Forces, operated a terrorist cell of the Fatah movement in the West Bank, and transferred money and weapons to support terrorist activity.
Israel radio reported on Monday that Israeli officials rejected a Palestinian proposal to transfer the wanted men to Palestinian- run jails in Jericho and the Gaza Strip. Sharon, speaking in Tel Aviv, said he was determined that the suspects be handed over to Israel.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service (c) The Washington Post.