US Mideast Envoy Urges Israel to Concede Seven-Day Calm Demand

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 04, 2002

US Mideast Envoy Urges Israel to Concede Seven-Day Calm Demand

U.S. Envoy to the Middle East Anthony Zinni asked Israel on Thursday to give up the demand of seven days of quiet before resuming negotiations with the Palestinians under the Tenet Plan.

U.S. Envoy to the Middle East Anthony Zinni asked Israel on Thursday to give up the demand of seven days of quiet before resuming negotiations with the Palestinians under the Tenet Plan.

Meeting with the heads of the Israeli security branches Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, Zinni said quiet in the region can only be reached through an ordered policy, the Army Radio reported.

However the envoy emphasized that the U.S. government will not force Israel to give up its demand for quiet before peace negotiations, adding that the Americans stand firmly with Israel in the position that Arafat is not doing enough to stop the terror.

In an unexpected move, Zinni is to convene an unscheduled meeting with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who will update him on Israel's redeployment in certain areas of the West Bank Thursday morning.

Zinni arrived in Israel on Thursday and was briefed by Israeli security chiefs on the situation in the area. Zinni requested that the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Security Committee, which has not met since the envoy returned home, convene on Sunday.

Israeli officials said that in the coming days, Israel will try to explain to the U.S. envoy its position that the seven days of quiet have not been achieved and therefore the implementation of the Tenet plan and recommendations of the Mitchell report can not begin.

The Mitchell report, released in last May by an international inquiry panel headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, calls for the Palestinians and Israel to end their violence, take confidence measures after a cooling-off period, and resume peace negotiations.

The Tenet plan is a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire plan brokered by U.S. Central Intellegence Director George Tenet in last June, but it has never been implemented.