English/Nat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that United States has offered to supervise a new security plan to link Israel's troop pullback in the West Bank to a series of steps by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to rein in militants.
Netanyahu said the plan would see the U-S supervise the release of Palestinian militants from jail to assure Palestinian compliance with promises to fight terrorism.
But Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat criticised Netanyahu, saying Israel still hasn't responded to a security plan which has already been approved by Washington and the Palestinian side.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, looking for all the help he can get in the Middle East peace process, followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Luxembourg on Friday, for talks with the European Union.
Arafat was met by Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker.
The Europeans have always wanted to play a serious role in the Middle East region but have been hampered by Israeli perceptions of Europe's pro-Arab bias.
The Palestinians want the Europeans in precisely because they believe the Europeans to be balanced.
They see the United States - the main Mideast peace broker - as biased towards Israel.
While in Luxembourg, Arafat said he had presented a Palestinian document on security issues to the United States and that Washington had added amendments to it.
He criticised Israel for not issuing their response.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking of his high hopes for progress towards peace in the Middle East.
Netanyahu said that United States has offered to supervise a new security plan to link Israel's troop pullback in the West Bank to a series of steps by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to rein in militants.
The proposed plan
would allow the U-S supervise the release of Palestinian militants from jail to assure Palestinian compliance with promises to fight terrorism.
But Netanyahu also said that there were many preliminary issues that must be addressed first.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"What we're discussing with the Americans and with the Palestinians, let's get an interim package to try to resolve these outstanding issues essentially consistent with Palestinian compliance - with the promises they gave us and the United States - and the Israeli redeployment. And then let us move once that is out of the way, move to the final settlement negotiations. I can tell for 1998 that is my wish, but that depends on the other side."
SUPER CAPTION: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
In the meantime the Israeli premier said Israel would not take instructions from anyone on what it should do with its own land.
He promised work, such as that underway on the Har Homa site, would continue to move forward without interference.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I don't know the exact timetable of the Har Homa thing that's going on. It's part of Jerusalem for God's sake. It's like Washington D.C. We don't limit development in our capital city. Oslo put no limitations whatsoever on Israeli activity in Jerusalem and put only one limitation on Palestinian activity in Jerusalem that they shouldn't have institutions. They violated that too."
SUPER CAPTION: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
Despite U-S pressure on Israel to define how much land it is willing to hand over, Netanyahu said he could not guarantee the Cabinet debate on the future of the West Bank will be completed by the time he meets President Clinton in Washington early next year.
The debate focuses on how much land Israel would need to keep to defend itself against attack by neighbouring Arab states.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
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