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July 14, 2002
JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials postponed high-level talks with the Palestinians on Saturday, saying they needed more time to consult before discussing ways to improve the humanitarian situation in Palestinian areas.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the meeting Saturday night was to have covered political, economic and security issues -- a far broader agenda than in two rounds of talks last week, the first high-level meetings in months.
But an Israeli official said the meeting was only to have discussed improving humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians and finding a way to ensure that aid not be funneled toward attacks on Israelis.
The official told the Associated Press the meeting would be rescheduled after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and other key ministers, expected early this week.
Israel's Channel One television said the talks were scrapped because Sharon and the more moderate Peres disagreed on the terms.
The talks were launched in advance of a meeting planned for Tuesday in New York of the "Quartet" committee -- made up of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations -- which is trying to put an end to 21 months of fighting.
The group is to be joined Wednesday by the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers.
At Egypt's invitation, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer planned to meet Monday with President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, said Ben-Eliezer spokesman Yarden Vatikai.
The diplomatic activity came as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged the United States to continue supporting his Palestinian Authority.
Arafat sent the Bush administration a letter outlining recent reforms and a 100-day program to implement them, said the PLO representative in Washington, Hassan Abdel Rahman.
Abdel Rahman said the new U.S. policy demanding a change of Palestinian leadership could produce more "tensions and aggression in the Palestinian territories."
In the West Bank on Saturday, Israeli forces detonated a car near the West Bank town of Qalqilya after finding four explosive devices inside, the army said. Warning shots sent the passengers fleeing.