First Wye pullout to end by tomorrow

By DANNA HARMAN

JERUSALEM (November 19) - Sometime tonight or tomorrow, IDF liaison officers are expected to hold a brief ceremony with their Palestinian counterparts. They will hand over maps, point out the cement blocks and the new road signs, shake hands, and go home. The first withdrawal under the Wye Memorandum will then be complete.

"This will not be a complicated procedure," said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's communications director, David Bar-Illan. "The area we are to withdraw from is almost completely barren, and army bases will not be removed. It is not like redeploying from Nablus."

The whole redeployment, which is in the Jenin area, should take only a few hours, he said.

The pullback could still be delayed, however. The cabinet is to convene today to assess Palestinian compliance with the Wye accord and then, depending on its assessment, vote on whether to move forward. The Palestinians have said that all that is incumbent upon them to do has been done or is being done.

The Palestinian Police said yesterday that the order to begin confiscating illegal arms has been given, while other Palestinian officials said the anti-incitement decree is being drafted.

The pullback consists of 2 percent from Area C (Israeli controlled) to Area B (joint Israeli-Palestinian control) and 7.1 percent from Area B to Area A (Palestinian control). Other key Wye-agreement sections to be implemented before the weekend, if the cabinet gives its go-ahead, are opening the airport at Dahaniya and releasing 250 Palestinian prisoners from its jails.

A problem over the prisoners is brewing, with Palestinian officials insisting they want only political prisoners to be released, while the government has lists showing that over half of those to be let out are criminals.

Palestinian Minister-without-Portfolio Ziyad Abu Ziyad reiterated the PA's position that the release of criminals is unacceptable. "The prisoners we want are our prisoners of war. We are not interested in the drug addicts and car thieves that the Israeli government wants to flood us with - you keep those," he said at a Hebrew University conference on peacemaking.

"The Palestinians can write up whatever lists they want," said Bar-Illan in response, "but we will release who we see fit to release."

A top American official said that problems may also arise with the opening of the airport. Even if the green light is given, he said, Dahaniya is not yet ready for operations. Night flights, for example, are ruled out because the necessary equipment has been held up by Israel in Ashdod Port.

Nonetheless, there are said to be plans for US President Bill Clinton, who is to travel to the region in early December, to land at Dahaniya.

Meanwhile, independent of the cabinet decision, Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian negotiator Mahmoud Abbas met to discuss the framework for the final-status negotiations. This was the first official session since the ceremonial opening of the final-status talks in May 1996. Although a speedy conclusion of the talks is not generally expected, they are slated to be completed by the end of the interim framework, including the Wye accord, on May 4, 1999.

"I think I speak for both of us when I say that our direction is forward, and we do not want to deal with what was in the past," said Sharon before the meeting in Jerusalem. "We want to find the best solutions, solutions which are good for us and good for the Palestinians. I intend to make every effort to reach this sort of resolution."

Abbas stressed the need to go about the process with "mutual respect and trust."

After the meeting, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the discussions had been "open and serious," and that another meeting would take place soon, hosted by Abbas.

In the past weeks, Sharon has been carrying out a series of consultations with top Foreign Ministry officials to identify and sharpen Israel's positions going into the final-status talks. Discussion papers on water, refugees, Jerusalem, and the settlements - which were prepared months ago - have now been dusted off and debated.

Sharon is to travel to the US at the end of the month to represent Israel at the convention of donors to the PA and to meet with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other officials to discuss the final-status negotiations. Before this trip, Sharon said he hopes to take the Foreign Ministry officials involved in final-status matters on a field trip to the West Bank to better acquaint them with the "intricate problems and the possible solutions ahead."

Wye implementation schedule

This morning the cabinet will review Palestinian Authority compliance and vote on whether Israel should go ahead with its part of the bargain. The cabinet is waiting for proof that the PA has: Arrested and imprisoned 10 of 30 listed fugitives; Issued a decree against incitement; Set up a framework for the confiscation of illegal weapons; Reaffirmed the nullification by the PLO executive committee of the Palestinian Covenant sections calling for Israel's destruction. If the PA actions are found to be acceptable, the following will happen: Tonight or tomorrow morning The first West Bank withdrawal will be carried out; 2 percent of land under full Israeli control (Area C) moves to Palestinian civil authority (Area B); 7.1% of the jointly controlled zone (Area B) will be upgraded to full Palestinian control (Area A). Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners, political and criminal. The airport at Dahaniya will be allowed to open. Ongoing: Interim committees and final status negotiations continue.

• Redeployment could alter US role
• IDF wraps up Wye's first stage today
• First Wye pullout to end by tomorrow
• Settlers scurry to limit pullout threat
• IDF poised to implement first Wye transfer
• Wye redeployment begins today
• PM confident he can sell Wye
• Netanyahu flies to capital to avoid protesters
• Right outraged at Wye signing, Left skeptical
• PA officials pleased, extremists reject accord
• Settler leaders weigh next steps
• US Jewish leaders hail accord

• What's in the accord?

• Text of The Wye Memorandum

• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech
• PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's speech

• A patchy deal can easily unravel
• Strained relations
• Clinton deserves praise for job well done
• Wye deal to launch final talks
• Netanyahu turns centrist, but still faces Right
• Now for the tough part
• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Reflections on Wye

• EDITORIAL: A tardy first step
• The next stage

• Sources: There was a tacit deal to release Pollard
• A Pollard chronology
• Pollard's father disappointed that Israel 'caved in' over release