Rice Opens ‘Positive’ Talks With Palestinians

JERICHO, West Bank —  Underscoring the fragility of the moment, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice arrived Saturday hoping to hold Israelis and Palestinians to, and then build on, an initial set of agreed steps aimed at ending generations of conflict.

Rice opened talks Saturday evening with Palestinian Authority officials in the ancient West Bank oasis of Jericho and was to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem today.

Palestinian officials described their four-hour session with Rice at a Jericho hotel as “positive” and “important.”

Also today, or perhaps Monday, several Palestinian militant organizations were expected to announce their first coordinated truce in 33 months of bloodshed against Israel. The announcement could be delayed as the final conditions are being debated.

Rice became the third top U.S. official to travel to the region in 3 1/2 weeks, starting with President Bush. She arrived at an especially delicate juncture.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials Friday agreed to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip, with Palestinians assuming control for security and working to prevent attacks on Israelis. Details over the exact timing have yet to be worked out, but a pullback from Beit Hanoun and other parts of northern Gaza could take place as early as Monday, Israeli officials said.

The Palestinians want Israel to halt its policy of hunting down and killing suspected militants; Israel is retaining what it sees as its right to go after what it calls “ticking bombs” if Palestinian security forces fail to do so.

Though the moves are small, they are seen as the beginning of the so-called road map, a plan for ending violence and leading to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in 2005. The plan has become the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s interest in this conflict and was endorsed, in principle, by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian Authority counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, at a summit with Bush on June 4.

The plan has received a boost both by the agreed-to troop withdrawal and by the expected announcement of a three-month cease-fire by the radical Islamic groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and, probably, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. These are the three principal militant Palestinian organizations responsible for most of the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis since the outbreak in September 2000 of the intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation.

Palestinians initially said the cease-fire, which would reportedly apply to all of Israel and the occupied territories and cover civilians, soldiers and settlers, would be formally unveiled at 11 a.m. today in joint announcements in the West Bank city of Ramallah as well as Gaza City and Egypt.

By nightfall there were reports that the announcement could be delayed by 24 hours as potentially deal-breaking conditions attached to the truce were being discussed. In addition, it was not clear that all members of the Martyrs Brigade, a decentralized collection of gangs with much local autonomy, would obey. Several local commanders were complaining Saturday night that they had not been consulted.

Abbas was expected to show a draft of the truce to Rice in their meeting in Jericho, Palestinian sources said. Rice was expected to urge Abbas to “dismantle” Hamas and other violent groups -- a move that Palestinian officials say could lead to civil war.

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Issue of Prisoners

Abbas, widely known as Abu Mazen, also told an angry crowd of Palestinian demonstrators earlier in the day that he would raise with Rice the issue of Palestinian prisoners.

The demonstrators, waving pictures of their jailed sons and brothers, rallied outside Abbas’ Ramallah offices during a meeting of the Palestinian Cabinet earlier Saturday. They swore that they would undermine any peace efforts by Abbas and his government -- and “burn the ground” beneath them -- unless the release of prisoners from Israeli jails was part of the deal. Palestinians say Israelis are holding more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Abbas emerged from his office and addressed the crowd through a megaphone: “There will be no peace or security if even one Palestinian prisoner remains behind bars!” he shouted.

The outburst over the prisoners illustrated just one of the many ways the emerging Israeli-Palestinian agreements could fall apart at any time.

Officials, analysts and ordinary citizens on both sides are full of dire warnings and predictions of imminent failure. Already, there have been provocations that could easily have driven one side or the other to give up.

Yet the negotiations inch onward, stalled but not killed by resurging violence.

One explanation: the mistrust in this land is so deep that neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian side believes the other will hold to terms of the agreements. Consequently, each side can sign up to a peace plan confident that the other side will violate it first.

Until now, Hamas had never cooperated to this extent in plans to halt violence against Israelis, and it has continued to do so even though Israel tried to assassinate one of its top leaders this month and rounded up scores of its members last week.

The Hamas involvement may be tactical and transitory. Having gained enormous popularity during the intifada, far outstripping the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and other mainstay organizations, Hamas may hope to translate that appeal into wider political power and legitimacy.

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Israel Keeps Negotiating

The Israeli government, for its part, has continued in negotiations despite the suicide bombing of a bus that killed 17, as well as other attacks. Israel is enjoying its strongest support ever from an American administration, and Sharon wants to maintain favorable relations. To do so, he too must show signs of cooperating, confident that the concessions he ultimately makes will be minimal.

“This is fraught with dangers, with a lot of mutual suspicions and doubts on both sides,” Israeli political analyst Joseph Alpher said Saturday. “It’s hard to give this agreement really good odds of succeeding.”

The only force that can push Israelis and Palestinians to take “confidence-building” steps such as the removal of Jewish settlements or the elimination of violent groups is the United States, Alpher said.

“It has to go beyond one-day visits by Condoleezza Rice,” he said. “It has to be constant, and it has to be at high levels.”

Two explosions, meanwhile, damaged an armored U.S. diplomatic car in a two-vehicle convoy in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Israeli military said. The convoy was apparently inspecting territory about to be abandoned by the army when it hit a mine or other type of explosive device.

Other details of the agreements reached so far, as reported either by Israeli or Palestinian sources and sometimes by both, include:

* In addition to pulling back troops, Israel has agreed to reopen the Gaza Strip’s main north-south road to Palestinian traffic; a buffer zone will remain around Kfar Darom, a settlement of about 30 Jewish families and bountiful lettuce fields that abuts the road.

* Israel also agreed to expand the hours it will open the Rafah checkpoint between Gaza and Egypt, the only means of exit for most Gaza Strip Palestinians. Palestinian males younger than 35 will once again be allowed to travel abroad, and additional work permits will be granted to Palestinians.

* The Palestinians agreed to stop mortar and rocket fire from their territory toward Israeli targets, to intercept attackers bound for Israel, to step up patrols in areas left by Israel and to collect illegal weapons.

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Wilkinson reported from Jerusalem and Stack from Jericho. Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.