Crisis deepens in Israel-PLO summit

Crisis deepens in Israel-PLO summit

EREZ, Gaza Strip (Reuter): Middle East peace talks slid deeper
into crisis yesterday when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO
Chairman Yasser Arafat failed to break a deadlock over Israelis'
security and the closure of Palestinian land.

They agreed to meet again in a week.

Rabin sought to play down the notion of a crisis in the talks
on expanding a long-stalled Palestinian self-rule deal.

But Yasser Abed Rabbo, Arafat's aide in charge of information
and culture, said: "I think there is a crisis, a real crisis.
There are two tendencies and two approaches."

The two-hour meeting at the Israeli-Gaza Strip border ended
without an expected joint news conference, as Arafat rushed to
meet a visiting European delegation headed by French Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe.

Rabin and Arafat are locked in a 17-month-old peace deal they
must implement or else face political oblivion. But every step
along the way has been met by obstacles including Islamic attacks
on Israelis.

Since the start of self-rule in Gaza and Jericho last May, the
two sides have gone from meeting to meeting in Cairo, Gaza and
elsewhere with little progress to report on the next stage,
including Palestinian elections and Israeli troop redeployment.

An unprecedented four-way Arab-Israeli summit in Cairo last
week was aimed at jump-starting talks. That meeting, labeled a
"coalition for peace" by Israel's foreign minister, also broke up
without an expected news conference.

Rabin said an 18-day-old ban on Palestinians entering Israel
from the Gaza Strip and West Bank would remain in force. He
imposed the closure after two Gaza suicide bombers killed 21
Israelis in Israel.

Rabin said 2,000 more Palestinian policemen would be mobilized
in self-rule areas to help ensure security. He said Palestinians
on Wednesday night apparently prevented a man from carrying out a
suicide attack in Israel. He did not elaborate.

Rabin told reporters: "There were differences but by no means
will I describe this as a crisis.

"We decided in the light of the fact it wasn't possible from
the standpoint of time and other circumstances to reach solutions
today, to hold another discussion next week," he said.

Rabin said Arafat must take control of law enforcement.
"From our standpoint the main dominant consideration is the
matter of security," Rabin said.

Arafat has voiced anger at the slow pace of expanding self-
rule beyond the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho
handed over by Israel last year.

"The meeting did not reach any results and the reason is that
there are differences over the main subjects of discussions,"
Abed Rabbo said, citing redeployment, Jewish settlements and the
release of Palestinian prisoners.

Backers of Arafat said the closure, barring entry to some
60,000 Palestinian laborers, only eroded support for peace moves
and lent momentum to Islamic peace foes. Half of Gaza is
unemployed even when Israel lets Palestinians in.

Palestinian officials said police, in a further crackdown on
militants, raided a Gaza office of the Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine yesterday and were holding 35 suspects
from the DFLP and 30 from Islamic Jihad.