Middle East talks dismissed as waste of time

GAZA - The chief of Palestinian public security says talks with Israeli generals on ways to end two months of bloodshed are a waste of time.

In the West Bank, Israeli Army snipers shot dead five Palestinian gunmen yesterday, Israeli radio reported, contradicting earlier assertions of an easing of tension.

A meeting yesterday between Palestinian security chief Major-General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh and the head of the Israeli Army's southern command, Major-General Yom-Tov Samia, marked a resumption of security contacts agreed last week.

Parallel talks took place in the West Bank.

"The meetings with the Israeli generals were pointless and a waste of time," Majaydeh said. "There were no agreements and no results."

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the talks but declined to give details.

Previous contacts have failed to end violence in which at least 279 people, mainly Palestinians, have been killed.

Israel Radio and Army Radio, quoting military sources, said Army snipers killed the four Palestinians near the West Bank town of Qalqilya, which is under Palestinian rule. The reports said the gunmen were on their way to carry out an attack.

The Army spokesman's office declined comment and there was no immediate response from the Palestinian authority.

Earlier, Israel pointed to a drop in tensions since Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke by telephone on Saturday in a call arranged by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was hosting Arafat.

Palestinians have been seeking an end to an Israeli blockade of their towns in the runup to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.

Israel says it will lift the encirclement only if violence ends.

"We have been receiving lately very clear signals from Arafat that he wants to halt violence," Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami told Israeli television. "It is possible he is incapable of bringing about a complete cessation."

In the West Bank, Arafat's Fatah movement called for Palestinians, seeking an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, to step up what it called the "popular protest" during the month of Ramadan.

Gunfire echoed again after nightfall on a familiar firing line between the Palestinian village of Beit Jalla, near Bethlehem, and Gilo, a Jewish settlement that Israel regards as a neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

Israel said it had no intention of being dragged into a wider conflict along its northern borders after Lebanese guerrillas killed an Israeli soldier yesterday.

Israel pointed an accusing finger at Syria and Iran after Hizbollah guerrillas set off a roadside bomb deep inside Israeli-controlled territory near the Lebanese frontier.

"Bashar gave permission," said Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"Iran gives the orders, and we carried out a limited response."

Israel mounted retaliatory air and artillery attacks that wounded at least one Lebanese.

Both Israel and Lebanon said they would file complaints to the United Nations Security Council.

Efforts to resolve the Palestinian conflict shifted to Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak and Danny Yatom, Barak's top security adviser, met for about 45 minutes.

"The Egyptian President expressed outright support for the demand that the violence must be stopped and even called on Israel and the Palestinians to renew their dialogue," Barak's office said.

Mubarak told Yatom that Arafat also wanted "an immediate cessation of the violence and resumption of ties with Israel."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said Israel was seeking to end the bloodshed.

"Although the current situation is still the same, there is definitely an Israeli desire to end the current situation between it [Israel] and the Palestinians - even if this requires a wider vision [by Israel] of the existing problems."

- REUTERS

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