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Israeli-Palestinian Security Meeting Makes No Breakthrough
The Israeli-Palestinian security coordination meeting held Wednesday night at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv did not yield any breakthrough due to differences over the ceasefire, Israel Radio reported Thursday.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials who chaired the meeting said that the current framework of security coordination has to be changed in the future, and it is of no use for both sides to exchange accusations against each other.
Israeli security officials insisted that the seven-day period of complete quiet, which precedes a cooling-off period before both sides taking any confidence-building measures, has not yet begun due to the situation on the ground.
The radio report said that the Palestinian security officials, who had prepared a wanted list of 30 right-wing Jewish militants, did not submit the list to their Israeli counterparts, who had said they would refuse to accept.
Israeli and Palestinian security officials have held a number of security coordination meetings under the auspicious of CIA officials since the CIA chief George Tenet brokered a ceasefire in June.
Since the ceasefire took effect on June 13, the Israeli- Palestinian bloody conflicts which broke out late last September witnessed ups and downs. There were moments when the violence dropped significantly, while there were also moments to see dangers of serious escalation.
In a meeting with Javier Solana, European Union's foreign policy chief, in Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinian National Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat again called for the deployment of international observers in the Palestinian territories to monitor the ceasefire.
Israel, which had repeatedly opposed to such an idea, has recently indicated that they would accept more U.S. monitors under the existent framework to help consolidate the ceasefire efforts.
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