JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni's meeting with top Israeli and Palestinian security officials ended early Thursday with no apparent sign of progress despite hopes for a cease-fire deal. However, Palestinian information minister, Yasser Abed Rebbo said that he expected a deal to be forged by weekend.
The meeting was overshadowed by a Resistance bombing on Wednesday in which seven Israelis, including four soldiers, were killed when a Palestinian Resistance man boarded a bus bound for Nazareth and detonated explosives strapped to his body. (Read photo caption below)
The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack which was claimed by the militant Islamic Jihad organization.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, calling the bombing "very grave," said Arafat had "not relinquished his policy of terrorism." But security sources said Israel was unlikely to retaliate, to avoid accusations of undermining Zinni.
Officials who attended the three-hour meeting in Tel Aviv which ended shortly after midnight were unavailable for comment.
Israeli radio stations reported the talks ended with an agreement to hold further meetings in the near future, but without the cease-fire deal that Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had earlier said could be finalized.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters before the Wednesday night meeting that Zinni had proposed the session not adjourn until a deal was sealed. He added he expects a truce to be forged by the weekend.
Israeli radio stations said Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to hold another round of security talks possibly on Thursday, although a time had not yet been set.
On the table is a cease-fire plan charted in June by CIA Director George Tenet and a Palestinian demand to link its implementation to the start of wider political moves leading to the resumption of talks on a permanent peace.
The Tenet plan calls for Israel to pull back troops to the positions held in the West Bank and Gaza before the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000.
Under the plan, Palestinian authorities would be expected to arrest Resistance men and confiscate illegal arms.
The sides would then gradually resume peace talks under a plan spelling out confidence-building measures, such as a freeze in Jewish settlement construction, proposed by an international committee led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
At least 1,084 Palestinians and 353 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The body of an Israeli occupation soldier is seen in the wreckage of a bus which was destroyed by a Palestinian Resistance bomber near the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, March 20, 2002. At least 7 people including the bomber were killed in the blast that further complicates diplomatic efforts to bring an end to 18 months of violence in the region. Photo by Reute