Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160160
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Medium
``The PLO is always saying that they want Israel to keep to the schedule and finish negotiations on time. But if they are delaying the start of the talks, they are also delaying the end,'' Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said.
Under terms of the Israel-PLO peace accord, Israel was scheduled to give control of the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho to the Palestinians by April 13.
Differences on security in the autonomy zones already had thrown that date in doubt. But after the Feb. 25 mosque massacre in Hebron, Israeli officials promised to meet the deadline if the Palestine Liberation Organization would return to the talks.
PLO leader Yasser Arafat rejected an appeal Monday from U.S. envoy Dennis Ross to restart negotiations.
The PLO repeated Tuesday that it wants Israel to first dismantle several Jewish settlements near Arab population centers in the occupied territories and to accept an international peacekeeping force.
The United States and Israel object to an international force, urging instead that the peace talks be speeded up so Palestinians can take control of their own security.
Further efforts to renew talks were expected in Washington, where Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was meeting with President Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher. But at the PLO's headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, Samir Ghosheh, a PLO executive committee member, said Arafat turned down an American proposal Tuesday for a meeting later this week in Washington with Rabin.
In a PLO attempt to show that it was not intransigent, four leaders of Arafat's Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip accepted an unprecedented invitation to meet with Labor Party legislators at Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
by CNB