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TUNIS -- Protection for Palestinians against Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied territories is more important than any accord, a PLO official said Tuesday after U.S.-PLO talks failed to achieve a breakthrough on resuming negotiations with Israel.
"No one can threaten us with the time factor, because Palestinians' security is more important than time and than any accord," PLO executive committee member Yasser Abed-Rabbo said.
Abed-Rabbo was speaking after a meeting on Monday between U.S. envoy Dennis Ross and PLO leader Yasser Arafat in which Ross pressed the PLO to restart negotiations on implementing the PLO-Israel peace deal signed in Washington last September.
The negotiations, intended to lead to Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, stopped after a Jewish settler massacred 30 worshippers in a Hebron mosque Feb. 25.
PLO officials said the Arafat-Ross meeting failed to achieve a breakthrough because the U.S. envoy could not commit to security measures for Palestinians in occupied territories. Abed-Rabbo said the Palestinians demanded that the United States and Russia, as co-sponsors of the Middle East peace conference, guarantee protection measures adopted by the U.N.
"We consider that a U.N. Security Council resolution, if adopted, has no practical value if it is not linked to a U.S. and Russian commitment to guarantee, directly, the international protection in the occupied territories," he said.
The Council on Monday canceled consultations that were expected to be followed by a vote condemning the massacre and calling for an international presence to protect Palestinians.
PLO officials say the cancellation was demanded by the United States.
The results of the Arafat-Ross meeting "do not invite optimism. There is an American attempt to use the U.N. Security Council resolution as a card to bargain in order to resume negotiations," Abed-Rabbo said.
Abed-Rabbo admitted that an Israeli envoy met Arafat on Monday in Tunis and delivered a letter describing measures Israel took after the Hebron massacre to limit movements of extremists among the 120,000 Jewish settlers.
"These measures are no different from those we read in newspapers," he said. "They have no value for ensuring security and protection for Palestinians.
"The ball is now in the Israeli and the United States court," he added.
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