Israel will transfer security control over several West Bank towns to the Palestinians in coming days, Israel's defense minister said yesterday, hours after he met with a Palestinian negotiator to work out the details of Israel's troop redeployment.
A senior Palestinian security official said the first four towns -- Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Jericho -- would be handed over on Wednesday.
The planned handover is the latest sign of rapid changes on the ground. It is accompanied by a rebuilding of trust after more than four years of fighting and a flurry of diplomatic meetings.
Israel has informed Palestinian officials that it is ready to withdraw "within a very short period of time" from all West Bank population centers and to return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, said Hassan Abu Libdeh, a senior Palestinian official.
Such a withdrawal is part of the long-stalled US-backed "road map" peace plan, which both sides now say they are ready to implement.
Abu Libdeh said the pullback would include the removal of some of the roadblocks that now ring Palestinian towns and severely disrupt daily life in the West Bank.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, said Feb. 8 is emerging as a target date for a summit between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a crucial stop toward ending hostilities and resuming peace talks.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is to arrive in the region two days earlier, for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Abu Libdeh said the summit would be prepared in detail, and that a decisive meeting of Abbas and Sharon aides would be held later this week.
"We want a very successful summit that will end with results," he said.
Palestinian officials said they expect a wide-ranging agenda that will include the declaration of a formal truce, a large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners and the resumption of peace negotiations. Israel, however, appears reluctant to move from security concerns into political matters.
The renewed peace hopes came after a sharp drop in violence. Abbas has obtained a promise from armed groups to halt attacks on Israel, and has deployed Palestinian police across the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel's army chief said he would halt military operations in Gaza and scale them back in the West Bank.
Yesterday, a 65-year-old Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli army fire along the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian officials said. The military said the man was deep inside a no-go zone, close to an Israeli army post along a patrol road near the border, when troops shot him.
Late Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met for nearly five hours with Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief, at a Tel Aviv to discuss a West Bank redeployment.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
RSS