Arafat Unimpressed by Israeli Retreat
March 15, 2002
In the first sign of let-up to the spiralling violence of the past months, Israeli tanks and troop were seen withdrawing from Ramallah, site of Arafat's West Bank headquarters, in a late evening operation that began Thursday and lasted well into the night.
The mood in Ramallah was a celebratory one, as jubilant Palestinians fired volleys in the air and whoops of joy rang out in the night air.
Israeli troops have also pulled out of the cities of Tulkarm and Qalqilya and the Gaza strip refugee camp of Al Boureij. But troops are still sticking to their positions in Palestinian lands outside the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin and Hebron.
The move marks the end of Israel's brief reoccupation of Arafat's West Bank base and its biggest ground military offensive in almost 20 years.
The Israelis have described the troop recall as a goodwill gesture, planned to coincide with the visit of US envoy Anthony Zinni to the region.
Arafat mistrustful of the move
But despite the landmark turnaround in the status-quo, Palestinian President Arafat is apparently far from convinced.
He condemned the phased-out withdrawal of Israeli troops as a mere "propaganda trick".
In an interview with Reuters he indicated that Israel was only putting up a show for the US envoy by hastily pulling out of Palestinian cities and villages before his arrival.
Arafat also voiced fears that the Israeli offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would ruin the peace plan floated by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah Abdullah.
The prince had suggested that Arab countries should agree to a peace treaty with Israel, if Israel on its part completely pulled out of Palestinian territories in the Gaza strip, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan-Heights that it had occupied during the war in 1967.
Zinni has a tough brief
Meanwhile the US envoy on Thursday began his third trip to the Middle East since November to seek implementation of a US-brokered cease-fire and the truce-to-talks Mitchell Plan drawn up by an international committee under former US senator George Mitchell.
But this time Zinni has a tougher brief with the US now back-tracking on its formerly soft stance towards Israel.
America has now demanded that Israel unconditionally withdraw from the autonomous Palestinian territories. In Washington, Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher said that this step would improve the preconditions for Zinni's peace mission.
Boucher also repeated a familiar appeal to Arafat to rein in Palestinian militants and do more to end the violence.
Talking peace amid violence
Zinni was given a cordial welcome by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who said his main effort was to achieve a cease-fire, but not at the expense of Israeli security.
Yet even as they talked, violence exploded in the region. Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli Merkava-3 tank in the Gaza strip on Thursday, killing three soldiers. Earlier six Palestinians were killed in separate incidents elsewhere on the West Bank.
Amid this backdrop of violence, Zinni will be seeking to persuade the two sides to resume security co-operation and adopt confidence building measures. Zinni will stay in the region for as long as he can report progress.
He was scheduled to meet Arafat later on Friday.