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.