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Palestine: Israel Not Committed to Cease-fire
RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Saturday that "nothing has changed on the ground" since a ceasefire with Israel went into effect earlier this week, news agencies reported.
Arafat was speaking at a brief press conference with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan after a joint meeting in Ramallah.
"I am sorry to say that Israeli soldiers are not implementing the orders of their political leaders and are carrying out their military activities and aggression. We are disciplined, and we have shown restraint in implementing the ceasefire, and we hope the other side will do the same", Arafat said.
"We asked Mr. Annan that there should be a deployment of international observers as soon as possible so we can monitor and see on the ground what is and what is not being done", the Palestinian President added.
He repeated a call for a reconvening of the powers that attended the October summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the first international meeting that attempted to bring a halt to the violence, news agencies reported.
Annan, meanwhile, repeated his call for urgent action to move forward in the search for so-called peace.
"We need to move ahead very quickly with the peace process; we need to work with the international community to come in with urgent assistance to help the people to rebuild their life, and this has to follow the effective implementation of the Mitchell report," the U.N. chief said.
Annan flew into Ramallah on the final leg of a Middle East tour aimed at bolstering the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. He is to go on to Jerusalem later Saturday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Under the working plan of the deal brokered by CIA chief George Tenet, senior security officials from the two sides are to meet under U.S. sponsorship to discuss the implementation of the deal.
Meanwhile, Arafat's Fatah resistance faction reaffirmed its commitment to Tenet's work plan during its emergency meeting Friday in Ramallah, accusing the Israelis of violating the cease-fire.
In its communiqué, Fatah called upon the United States, Russia, the European Union and all the "peace loving nations" to press Israel to return to the negotiating table and implement United Nations resolutions 338 and 242.
Fatah's appeal came after the meeting between Palestinian and Israeli security officials to review the deal had broken up in disagreement because the Palestinian Authority refused to accept Israeli demands to detain activists from the resistance groups of Hamas and Jihad.
The Israelis claimed they took some initial steps to redeploy tanks away from flash points and reopened major roads to Palestinian traffic in Gaza. The Palestinians said that the Israeli claims were cosmetic and not profound.
The CIA chief came to the region after violence escalated following the Tel Aviv bombing that killed 20 people and the bomber.
After six days of intensive mediation by Tenet, the Palestinians and Israelis accepted an American cease-fire proposal based on the security agreements forged at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in October 2000 embedded in the Mitchell Report of April 2001.
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