Islamic Jihad openly accepts truce

JERICHO, West Bank: Seeking to build on progress implementing an American-backed peace plan, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice flew to the Middle East yesterday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Her visit came ahead of an expected truce announcement by Palestinian militants. Rice’s first stop was in the West Bank city of Jericho, where she met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas at a plush hotel. During the four-hour meeting, Abbas pressed demands for the release of political prisoners held by Israel, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territories and a freeze on Jewish settlement activity there, Palestinian Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said. “The meeting was very positive,” he said, with American officials showing an “understanding” for Palestinian demands. Rice’s visit also includes a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today, when militant groups are planning a formal announcement that they are halting attacks against Israelis for three months. However, some militants suggested the announcement might be delayed a day. Together with a preliminary agreement by Israel to pull out troops from the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Bethlehem, a truce could be a significant turning point that provides a major boost to the “road map” peace plan launched by US President George W Bush at a June 4 Mideast Summit. Violence has plagued attempts to implement the road map, a blueprint to end 33 months of fighting and establish a Palestinian state by 2005. Yesterday, two explosive devices detonated, damaging at least one vehicle in a convoy of US diplomatic cars travelling in Gaza, Israel’s military said. Details were sketchy. No injuries were reported, and US embassy officials refused to comment on the incident.

The Syrian-based leaders of the two main Islamic groups, Islamic Jihad and the larger Hamas group, agreed to a truce earlier in the week, according to a Palestinian legislator involved in the negotiations. But Gaza-based militants initially denied there was a deal, and then said details needed to be worked out. “We have accepted a conditional cease-fire for three months,” Mohammed al-Hindi, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told The Associated Press yesterday, in the first on-the-record confirmation of the truce from a militant leader. Ramadan Shalah, the main Islamic Jihad leader based in Damascus, told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite channel that Islamic Jihad “has agreed with the Hamas movement and the Fatah movement to suspend military operations” against Israel. He said he expected an announcement today. Hamas leaders have also said they agree to a truce, but will only formally declare their acceptance in a joint document still being finalised. The truce, first reported by AP on Wednesday, applies to the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Israel, fulfilling a key Israeli demand. Intensive meetings continued yesterday between Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction to work out the final wording of the truce announcement. There were also efforts to bring 10 smaller factions on board. At least one of them, the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, appeared to be holding out approval, a Palestinian negotiator said on condition of anonymity. A number of West Bank leaders, speaking in the name of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, also complained in a statement that they had not been consulted on the deal. The Brigades are loosely linked to Fatah. A formal truce announcement was expected today, but Al-Hindi said it could be put off until tomorrow, if necessary. It remains to be seen whether all militants will comply. The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in particular are composed of many rebellious armed gangs scattered throughout the West Bank and thought to be difficult to control.

Israel and the United States have also given the emerging truce a lukewarm response, saying armed groups should be dismantled as required by the road map. Palestinian officials fear a crackdown could trigger a civil war and have opted instead for persuasion. However, the White House welcomed a preliminary agreement Friday to turn over security responsibility in Gaza and Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority, calling it a “first significant joint step toward implementation of commitments” Israeli and Palestinian leaders made at the June 4 summit with Bush. The road map requires that Israeli forces gradually withdraw to positions held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000. Israel was “cautiously optimistic” about the pullback arrangements, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yonatan Peled said yesterday, but expected the Palestinian Authority to “keep a lid on terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.” The deal, reached in talks between Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and Israel’s Maj Gen Amos Gilad, came with a pledge by Israel to halt targetted killings of wanted Palestinians — one of the militants’ key demands for continuing with a truce. Palestinians in turn agreed to act against what Israel calls “ticking bombs” — assailants on their way to attack Israelis. But Peled said Israel reserved the right to go after assailants themselves if Palestinians failed to do so. Arafat’s Fatah approved the deal at its weekly Saturday meeting. Details of how to implement it were to be worked out at meetings today in Gaza and Bethlehem. The progress in negotiations was accompanied by mounting pressure by Palestinians for guarantees regarding the release of prisoners. A noisy crowd gathered outside of Abbas’ office yesterday in the West Bank town of Ramallah, demanding he raise the issue with Rice. Plunging into the crowd, Abbas demanded a loudspeaker and shouted: “There will be no peace or security if even one Palestinian prisoner remains behind bars. Be sure that we will exert our utmost in order to empty all prisons of prisoners.”