Sharon says he’s willing to lift travel ban on Arafat if truce is in place

By Steve Weizman

Associated Press

JERUSALEM – Yasser Arafat was offered major incentives Tuesday to help stop Mideast fighting: Vice President Dick Cheney said he would meet with the Palestinian leader after a truce takes hold, and Israel said it might lift a travel ban on Arafat in time for next week’s Arab summit.

A meeting with Cheney would mark Arafat’s highest-level contact yet with the Bush administration. Attending the Arab summit would mean an end to Arafat’s three-month confinement to the Palestinian areas by Israel.

In fighting Tuesday, two Palestinian gunmen infiltrated an army training area in the West Bank, killing an Israeli officer and wounding three soldiers before being shot to death. Elsewhere, a Palestinian man standing outside his shop in the West Bank town of Beit Omar was killed by Israeli troops, Palestinian officials said.

Cheney said the United States would remain “very actively engaged” in truce efforts led by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, who has reported some progress toward a cease-fire declaration that would end 18 months of fighting. Since September 2000, 1,212 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 352 on the Israeli side.

Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a truce announcement could be made as early as Wednesday.

Cheney has drawn complaints from Palestinians for not meeting with Arafat during his 24-hour visit to Israel. The vice president said that once a cease-fire has taken hold, he would meet with Arafat in a location yet to be determined.

Asked about his failure to meet with Arafat on this trip, Cheney said: “I don’t think that justifies the charge that somehow we are ignoring the Palestinian people.”

“We are working very hard … at trying to achieve an end to the conflict that has plagued Israelis and Palestinians,” he said during a joint news conference with Sharon. “I am hopeful that the effort that we are making here today will result in giving Gen. Zinni the support he needs to move forward.”

Cheney put the onus in reaching and preserving a cease-fire on Arafat, saying the coming week would be crucial for the Palestinian leader. Cheney said Arafat must do everything he can to prevent attacks on Israelis. “I would expect the 100 percent effort to begin immediately,” Cheney said.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said he welcomed Cheney’s offer to meet with Arafat. Earlier Tuesday, Erekat had said Cheney was showing bias by not meeting with Arafat this time. “I don’t understand why this American administration and the vice president are trying so hard just to be one-sided, and to listen to one side at the expense of the other side,” Erekat said.

Sharon, meanwhile, said he would allow Arafat to leave the Palestinian territories once a truce is in place.

Sharon said that according to the emerging timetable for a cease-fire, “we can assume … that he can get to Beirut.” At the summit, Saudi Arabia is to present a new peace plan – provided Arafat attends. Under the plan, Israel would win peace with the Arab world in exchange for a withdrawal from the lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.

Sharon said that at the Arab summit, he expected Arafat to “speak on the importance of peace and regional stability.” The prime minister left open the possibility that the Palestinian leader would not be able to return if there was another upsurge in violence or Arafat delivered an inflammatory speech in Beirut.

Erekat responded that “Sharon cannot put an obstacle on the movement of Arafat and cannot dictate to us what we should say or not say.”

Cheney, who came to Israel after stops in nine Arab countries, had carried a request from Arab leaders that he push the Israelis to allow Arafat to leave Palestinian areas to attend the summit.

Earlier Tuesday, Cheney held his second meeting with Sharon in two days and made time to hear the views of several Israeli Cabinet ministers.

Concerning other Mideast issues, Cheney said no decision had yet been taken on whether to attack Iraq. “There has been great press speculation about the possibility of a military action against Iraq,” Cheney said. “No such decision has been made.”

On Monday, President Bush acknowledged the view of Arab leaders who told Cheney the United States should not take military action against Iraq and its suspected program to develop weapons of mass destruction. But the president, speaking in St. Louis on Monday, said he was determined not to let Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein “hold the United States and our friends and allies hostage.”

In a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials on Monday, Israel presented its timetable for implementing a cease-fire brokered last year by CIA chief George Tenet. Israel said it would need about a month to carry out its obligations, Palestinian security officials said. The Palestinians are to present their plan Wednesday, and if agreement is reached, a truce could be declared after that session, according to the Palestinian officials.

The intensified U.S. efforts came after one of the bloodiest periods in the 18-month conflict, and has led to a toning down of the rhetoric and some steps on the ground. Israeli troops withdrew from Palestinian-controlled territory early Tuesday in an apparent precursor to a truce declaration.

The Israeli military said troops had pulled out of all Palestinian-run areas, while the Palestinians said Israeli tanks remained in some of those territories in Gaza.

Earlier this month, Israel had launched its largest-scale military operation in a generation, sending thousands of troops into Palestinian towns and refugee camps in a hunt for Palestinian militants who have carried out attacks on Israeli civilians.

Since last week, Israeli forces have gradually pulled back. Before dawn Tuesday, Israeli tanks pulled out of the West Bank town of Bethlehem and surrounding areas, the army announced.