Ending years of deadlock and distrust, Israel and the Palestinians concluded a new West Bank land-for-security agreement, charting the course toward a historic final peace accord by September 2000.
After weeks of often agonizing haggling -- negotiators were prodded along in the decisive final stage by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright -- events are to unfold with breathtaking speed.
The agreement takes effect today, a day after a signing ceremony in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh attended by Albright. In the coming days, Israel will withdraw from 7 percent of the West Bank and release 200 Palestinian security prisoners.
PHOTO: AP
Also in early September, negotiators will launch long-overdue talks on a final peace accord. The new deal says that a year later, on Sept. 10, 2000, the two sides must complete the accord, which will address complex issues such as Palestinian statehood, the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the future of Jewish settlements.
The deal, a revision of last year's Wye River interim peace accord, was quickly criticized by Israel's hawkish opposition and by Islamic militants.
Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who himself played a key role in negotiating the Wye accord, said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has made too many concessions, especially on the release of Palestinian prisoners held for anti-Israeli activities.
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas, dismissed the accord as yet another sellout by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Asked whether Hamas would keep trying to wreck the peace efforts with terrorist attacks, Yassin said his supporters reserved the right to resist Israeli occupation.
In several Palestinian towns, demonstrators staged small marches to press for the release of all security prisoners by Israel. For now, the accord provides only for the release of 350 of nearly 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel. In Bethlehem, a few marchers threw stones at Israeli soldiers and a news photographer was slightly injured in the head by a stone.
With the agreement, Barak makes good on his promise to get peace talks back on track after three years of deadlock under his hard-line predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. "We are returning to the peace process, and it's starting tomorrow," Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, a veteran peace negotiator, said yesterday.
For Albright, the deal marked a diplomatic triumph.
Smiling broadly, she emerged late Friday from a meeting with Arafat at his seaside headquarters in Gaza City to announce the breakthrough. Albright, who had earlier described herself as only "a handmaiden" to the negotiators, said the two sides had seized a historic opportunity. "They will now tackle the issues that will define their peace for generations to come," Albright said.
Albright cautioned that many difficulties still lay ahead on the road to a final peace agreement.
Beilin said he expected the troop pullback to take place in 10 days, after the Jewish New Year's holiday.
Two more pullbacks will take place Nov. 15 and Jan. 20.
In all, Israel will transfer 11 percent of the West Bank, or 600 square kilometers, to the Palestinians between September and January. Israel has pledged to carry out one more withdrawal ahead of a final peace deal.
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