Ross fails to break deadlock over West Bank<\/p>\n
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Agencies): U.S. peace envoy Dennis Ross
\nhas failed to break the impasse over a second Israeli withdrawal
\nfrom the West Bank scheduled to follow U.S. President Bill
\nClinton's visit, Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\"The meetings held yesterday did not produce the necessary
\nbreakthrough between us and the Israeli side on the
\nimplementation of the second withdrawal due under the Wye River
\nagreement,\" Palestinian negotiator Hassan Asfour told AFP.<\/p>\n
Ross met on Tuesday with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
\nNetanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and was expected
\nto return home following a second rounds of meetings with both
\nmen on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Asfour said it was unlikely Ross could resolve the disputes
\nstanding in the way of further implementation of the Wye River
\nland-for-security deal reached six weeks ago in Washington.<\/p>\n
\"I think it's unlikely in light of the Israeli intransigence
\nand double-dealing that he will be able to bridge the gap in the
\ncoming days,\" said Asfour, minister without portfolio.<\/p>\n
\"I think the American president during his visit will strive
\nto arrive at a solution to the serious crisis caused by the
\nIsraeli government, which wants to destroy the Wye River
\nagreement,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Under the Wye deal, Israel carried out a first withdrawal from
\ntwo percent more of the West Bank land month and freed 250
\nPalestinian prisoners, mostly common criminals.<\/p>\n
But last week Netanyahu said he would not order the second
\nphase of the pullback scheduled for Dec. 18 unless the
\nPalestinians halt a rash of violent protests over the past two
\nweeks and meet other conditions.<\/p>\n
Most controversially Netanyahu has demanded that Palestinians
\nstop insisting Israel agreed at Wye to release prisoners \"with
\nIsraeli blood on their hands\" and that Arafat retracts threats to
\nunilaterally declare a Palestinian state in May.<\/p>\n
Clinton is due to arrive early on Sunday and will pay the
\nfirst visit by a U.S president to the Palestinian territories on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
Clinton is also due to give a speech to a joint session of the
\nPalestinian legislature and the Palestinian National Council in
\nGaza which is due to vote on amendments to the Palestinian
\nnational covenant.<\/p>\n
In Hebron, West Bank, more than 55 Palestinians were hurt in
\nunrest on Wednesday, when protests and a general strike marked
\nthe 11th anniversary of the Palestinian uprising, witnesses said.<\/p>\n
The clashes, following violence on Monday in which 70
\nPalestinians were injured, cast a shadow over the Clinton's
\nscheduled visit on Dec.12-15 to Israel and Palestinian-ruled
\nareas.<\/p>\n
Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers and cars on roads
\naround West Bank towns and Jewish settlements in violence
\nreminiscent of the intifada that began in 1987 and largely died
\nout after the Oslo interim peace deal in 1993.<\/p>\n
At least 27 protesters were wounded, five of them seriously,
\nfrom rubber-coated bullets fired by Israeli soldiers during
\nclashes in Bethlehem, witnesses said.<\/p>\n
Another 10 were hurt in protests near Ramallah and some 19
\nPalestinians were injured elsewhere in the West Bank. The army
\nsaid an Israeli woman motorist was slightly injured by a rock
\nthrown by Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Palestinian businesses and schools were closed to commemorate
\nthe uprising and to protest at Israel's refusal to release
\nPalestinian security prisoners under the Wye River land-for-
\nsecurity deal brokered by Clinton.<\/p>\n
The militant Moslem group Hamas said in a statement its
\nfounder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, under house arrest in Gaza, had
\nbegun a hunger strike to affirm the \"sacred right\" of the
\nmovement's detainees \"to freedom and dignity\".<\/p>",
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