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Israel, Palestinians Agree to Shorten Cooling-Off Period: Radio
Israeli and Palestinian security officials have agreed to shorten the cooling-off period for starting confidence building measures from the original six weeks to four weeks, Israel Radio reported Saturday morning.
The two sides held a security meeting under the auspice of US Central Intelligence Agency officials in Tel Aviv Friday evening to evaluate the ceasefire situation on the ground since a truce took effect June 13 with the help of CIA chief George Tenet.
No statements were issued after the meeting and the radio report could not get immediate confirmation from Israeli government officials as Saturday is Israel's Sabbath.
The six-week cooling-off period was set according to the Mitachell report on causes of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which has last for more than nine months and left over 600, most of them Palestinians, dead.
The Mitchell report recommended that both sides should break the cycle of violence as soon as possible, carry out confidence building measures -- including a total freeze of Jewish settlement construction in the occupied territories -- after a cooling-off period, and finally resume their peace talks.
The timeline, agreed during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region late last month, states that the cooling-off period would last for six weeks, and would only begin after seven days of total calm.
The shortening of the period was agreed upon after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while on a lightning 26-hour visit to France and Germany before Friday afternoon, found himself at odds with European leaders on how to resolve the current violence.
Sharon, an Israeli hawk, reportedly felt great pressure from the European Union, which urged him to shorten the period prior to both sides returning to the negotiating table.
But the two sides obviously still have different understandings regarding the seven days of calm, which Israel claimed should be absolutely quiet without any violence.
At the security meeting on Friday, the Palestinians claimed that the seven days leading to the cooling-off period had ended on Wednesday.
Israel, on the other hand, argued that the U.S. had accepted Israel's position that the seven-day period never began counting due to the non-stop violence on the ground in the past few days.
The U.S. CIA representative attending the meeting did not issue any statement.
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