TEL AVIV, June 12: A senior Israeli security official said on Tuesday that US CIA chief George Tenet had told him he considered his mission aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians had failed.

“He said his mission failed because the Palestinians didn’t accept his plan,” the official said, adding that Tenet was expected to leave the region in a day or two. “The next stage is shrouded in a cloud of question marks because this was the only game in town,” senior Israeli foreign ministry official Oded Eran said. Israel announced it had accepted the Tenet plan, but Eran said Israel wanted to be certain there were no “loopholes” to ensure a complete halt to the intifada.

The Palestinians said they gave “conditional approval” to the plan, but that they rejected certain conditions, including the arrest of hardliners accused by Israel of masterminding attacks and any delay to the lifting of a crippling closure on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In addition, they said an Israeli proposal for a buffer zone between Israel and the Palestinian territories was “unacceptable.” “We are speaking about fundamental differences,” West Bank preventive security chief Jibril Rajoub told Voice of Palestine radio.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the army would continue to open fire on Palestinian targets if Israeli troops are in danger, and reserved the right to carry out “deterrent defensive operations. “I want to underline clearly that no terrorist cell preparing an attack will be immune,” he told an Israel chamber of commerce lunch in Tel Aviv.

The Palestinians said they had given “conditional approval” to Tenet’s ceasefire plan, which is based on recommendations in the Mitchell committee report on the circumstances leading to the Palestinian uprising. According to Israeli media reports, which Washington refuses to confirm, Tenet’s plan requires an immediate Israeli withdrawal of its forces to positions before the uprising broke out and a lifting of the closure. The Palestinians have to immediately enforce the ceasefire, arrest about 20 guerillas from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements and collect all illegal weapons in areas under their control, the reports said. At the end of a six-week cooling-off period, the two sides should start implementing confidence-building measures called for by the Mitchell panel, headed by former US senator George Mitchell, they said.

The commission last month called for an immediate ceasefire, an Israeli freeze on settlement-building and full Palestinian efforts to prevent “terrorism” in order to move back to the negotiating table. US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said there were signs of a turning point in the cycle of violence.

“It is possible, possible that we have reached a turning point in the violence,” Indyk said in a lecture at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. “There are now indications, still tentative, that the Palestinian Authority may finally be trying to take action to stop the violence, including turning off hateful incitement.” But Indyk said it was “critical” that Israel eases its blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, if calm takes hold, to avoid the Palestinian people turning against Yasser Arafat’s declaration of an unconditional ceasefire.

The leading Haaretz newspaper reported that Tenet has decided to extend his visit to the region by another day, but a US diplomatic source would not comment on the CIA director’s mission. However, the source said US special Middle East envoy William Burns “will continue his meetings on the implementation of the Mitchell commission report, on the framework and timelines.”

In other diplomatic moves, United Nations chief Kofi Annan is due to start Tuesday a week-long trip to the Middle East. “If Tenet has to leave empty-handed, it will mean that one of the top American officials has failed to restore calm and we are heading for an inevitable escalation,” Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israeli radio. He said if Arafat set conditions to his acceptance “it means he does not want a real ceasefire.” >But Rajoub complained that Israel was insisting on maintaining “occupation and aggression” while demanding stability and calm.

Violence has dropped off sharply since Arafat called for a ceasefire 10 days ago following a bloody suicide attack in Tel Aviv that killed 20 people and the bomber. But an Israeli baby and a 23-year-old Palestinian both died Monday of injuries sustained last week from stones thrown by Palestinians and Israeli bullets respectively. And the Israeli army said three mortar bombs were fired Tuesday at the Jewish settlement of Morag in the southern Gaza Strip, causing no casualties or damage. -AFP

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