Agreement to end Middle East violence

JERUSALEM - Israel says it has agreed with the Palestinians on steps to end their bloodiest clashes in years.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office yesterday issued a dramatic announcement in the wake of talks between former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and only hours after Israel's security cabinet had drafted a battle plan to crack down on the violence.

Barak's office said Arafat and Peres reached the understanding at a two-hour meeting in Gaza.

The United States, the main Middle East peace broker, swiftly welcomed the announcement and said it had been told of the understanding by both sides.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority, but Peres told Israeli radio that both Arafat and Barak would make public announcements within hours.

A senior Israeli political source said Barak and Arafat would announce on their public radio stations an immediate halt to the violence that has claimed the lives of 163 people, nearly all of them Palestinians.

The source said Barak was sending a special envoy to Arafat in Gaza to make sure the understanding would be implemented.

Israel's Army spokesman, Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey, said troops had received orders to withdraw tanks and lift closures on Palestinian cities, but he noted that previous truces had failed to take hold.

"The appropriate orders have been given - not only not to shoot ... but also to withdraw the heavy armour and lift the closures around Palestinian communities," Kitrey told Army Radio.

He also said Israeli military commanders would meet their Palestinian counterparts to discuss security issues.

"It is a cessation of violence," Peres said, explaining the understandings with the Palestinian leader.

"We want at least two days without funerals."

The terse Barak statement said the sides had agreed to implement a US-brokered ceasefire, forged in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last month.

"An understanding was reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on a series of steps on the basis of the Sharm understanding that are due to lead to the renewal of security cooperation and a halt to the violence and incitement."

Israel's Acting Foreign Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, told Army Radio that Arafat and Barak were both expected in the United States next week.

He said they would not meet each other, but President Bill Clinton might seize the opportunity to try to revive peace moves suspended by Barak over the violence.

The White House National Security Council spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said: "We have been informed of this by both parties.

It's a welcome development and we'll be looking for full compliance by both sides."

Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab lawmaker and former adviser to Arafat, stopped short of confirming an agreement, but told Army Radio: "The intention is a gradual calming so that in the next two days there will not be a use of weapons."

Hours earlier, Israel's cabinet drew up a battle plan to crack down on the Palestinians after three of its soldiers died in gunfights.

That was the country's heaviest one-day casualty toll of the unrest.

Six Palestinians were also killed in the early confrontations yesterday.

One Israeli political source said the security cabinet had decided on a series of "retaliatory steps."

Their implementation depended on the outcome of the meeting between Peres and Arafat, who shared the Nobel peace prize in 1994 for their breakthrough peace accords sealed in Oslo.

- REUTERS

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