Arafat Accepts Barak’s Timetable for Land Hand-Over

JERUSALEM — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Sunday accepted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s timetable for relinquishing West Bank territory, putting to rest a small crisis that had erupted over efforts to renew the long-stalemated Mideast peace process.

Arafat, president of the self-governing Palestinian Authority, agreed to Barak’s proposal to delay land transfers until October. The delay had outraged many Palestinian officials, who denounced the proposal in recent days and questioned the new Israeli premier’s commitment to the pursuit of peace.

But Arafat, speaking in Gaza City during a visit by the emir of Qatar, said he welcomed Barak’s willingness to carry out last fall’s U.S.-brokered Wye Plantation agreement. Under the land-for-security deal frozen in December by Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak’s hard-line predecessor, Israel must still cede an additional 11% of the West Bank to Palestinian control, while the Palestinians must take concrete steps against terrorism.

Barak has said he will begin implementing the Wye agreement in September, with troop withdrawals to follow in October.

“He promised me he would implement the Wye agreement in August,” Arafat said Sunday, referring to Barak. “So if he wants it to be September, we welcome that. The most important thing is that Wye is implemented.”

In addition to the receipt of land, the Palestinians expect other agreed-upon measures, including the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, safe passage for Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the opening of a Palestinian-run harbor on the Mediterranean.

Over the weekend, the Palestinians attempted a show of their compliance with the Wye agreement by arresting three leaders of the militant Hamas movement. Hamas, responsible for scores of deadly attacks on Israelis, has been critical of Arafat’s peace negotiations.

A Hamas wing purportedly claimed responsibility for a gun attack on two Israelis near the West Bank city of Hebron last week, the first act of terrorism since Barak took office. In response, Arafat’s police in Gaza arrested Ismail abu Shanab, a Hamas moderate who on Friday made anti-Israel statements in an interview with a pan-Arab television station; Abdulaziz Rantisi, who was released just two weeks ago after 15 months in jail without charge; and Ahmed Nimr Hamdan, a frequent critic of Arafat.

Abu Shanab was released late Sunday. Hamas decried the arrests as harassment by Arafat to silence his critics.

Barak earlier Sunday reiterated to his Cabinet that he would order troops to withdraw from a portion of the West Bank starting Oct. 1, after initiating a “countdown” in September.

Neither Barak nor Arafat, in their comments Sunday, addressed the last phase of troop withdrawal called for by the Wye agreement. Nor did they resolve a key outstanding issue: Barak wants to combine the concluding stage of the Wye agreement with so-called final-status negotiations that are to produce a permanent, comprehensive settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Arafat repeatedly has said he wants all of Wye to be completed before the final-status talks, which must resolve the most intractable issues facing the two sides, including the status of the disputed holy city of Jerusalem, final borders, refugees and water rights.

Both Palestinians and Israelis said Sunday that the controversy over how to proceed with peace talks had forced Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to postpone a visit to the region, where she would have been expected to guide the two sides.

Barak, who has made clear his desire to reduce U.S. intervention in negotiations, said he had asked Albright to delay her trip. The Palestinians had demanded U.S. intervention to resolve their dispute with Barak over how to execute the Wye agreement.

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Fayed abu Shamallah in Gaza City contributed to this report.