Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 18, 2003
Israeli Withdrawal from Palestinian Towns Postponed
The scheduled Israeli pullout from the two West bank cities of Qalqilya and Jericho that was supposed to take place on Monday has been postponed, well-informed Palestinian sources reported.
The scheduled Israeli pullout from the two West bank cities of Qalqilya and Jericho that was supposed to take place on Monday has been postponed, well-informed Palestinian sources reported.
The sources said that a meeting between high-ranking Israeli and Palestinian security officers failed on Sunday night to finalizeall the steps that would be taken by both sides after the Israeli army pullout from the two cities.
Elias Zananieri, spokesman for Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan, confirmed that the Israeli decision was made after a nearly four-hour meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials, which ended in failure.
He explained that "the meeting ended without any result and without any timetable. There will be no withdrawal tomorrow or the day after."
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian minister for security affairs Mohamed Dahlan agreed on Friday that the Israeli army would pullout from four West bank cities, Qalqilya,Jericho, Ramallah and Tulkarem within the coming two weeks.
The most controversial issue was the complete Israeli withdrawal from the first two cities back to where the Israeli forces were before the Palestinian broke out in late September 2000.
The other issue that the Palestinians insisted during the meeting is not only the Israeli army pulls its troops and armor vehicles out of the two cities, but also to remove all the roadblocks andsand barriers that the Israeli army had erected outside the two cities.