Rabin, Arafat OK Accord for Signing Today

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat locked themselves in a marathon negotiating session in an Egyptian presidential palace, emerging early today with a final accord on Palestinian self-rule.

The scheduled signing of that agreement, at a ceremony today to be attended by nearly 2,500 dignitaries and senior officials from 54 nations, marks the Palestinian people’s first step toward autonomy after almost 27 years of occupation. It is, analysts say, the greatest gesture Israel has made toward peace with its Arab neighbors.

On Tuesday, Rabin and Arafat flew to the Egyptian capital for a last-minute summit as negotiating teams worked furiously at a hotel to draft the final accord, a 200-plus-page document under which a Palestinian Authority will become the new government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Jericho. Israeli troops, meantime, will launch their first withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher sat down with the two leaders under the stewardship of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a last attempt to reach compromises on fundamental issues that have held up an agreement: the size of the Palestinian enclave at Jericho and whether a Palestinian border guard will be present on the bridge that marks the international boundary between Jordan and the West Bank.

“I feel quite confident, although there are some issues that remain to be decided, that there will be a signing ceremony tomorrow,” Christopher told reporters before joining the two Middle East leaders at Cairo’s Itthadiya Palace. “I’ll be there to help keep the parties on track, to help them identify the open issues. Of course, this is for the parties to resolve on their own. . . . The parties have spent a lot of time with each other.”

A senior U.S. official, recalling the breakthrough the two sides made in secret talks in Norway last summer, added: “The Israelis and Palestinians want to do it themselves, as they did in Oslo. But they may at the end need a push.”

The prodding produced results shortly after 2 this morning, when, after separate and joint meetings with Mubarak and Christopher, the two sides sat down for a long session that resulted in a final agreement. Its details were not disclosed.

Nabil Shaath, the chief Palestinian negotiator, who looked exhausted but elated as he left the palace, announced: “The negotiations are over, and we are going to write down what we agreed upon. . . . We’ve reached agreement on all the points.”

Final drafting was expected to continue through the night, but Shaath said the accord between Arafat and Rabin represented a historic step. “It is the first time in history that the Palestinian people will have their chance to rule themselves on their own land,” he said. “This is not all that we want, but it is a beginning.”

Discord between the two leaders on several points dragged the discussions out over nearly eight hours. Arafat had been visibly irritated as he left his headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, accusing the Israelis of backtracking on previous items of accord.

Palestinian sources said he was angry at Rabin’s reluctance to approve the issuance of Palestinian postage stamps. He was also upset that the Israelis balked at allowing him the Arabic title rais-- meaning either president or chairman--as head of the new Palestinian Authority. “The Israelis are backtracking. They are procrastinating in order not to implement many agreements we reached,” Arafat told reporters.

Palestinian sources said Maj. Gen. Amnon Shahak, the chief Israeli negotiator, returned from consultations in Israel over the weekend with two dozen proposed changes to the accord, including the issue of the stamps, prompting rumors that Arafat was refusing to board the plane for Cairo. “The Israelis are retracting on what has been agreed upon. That is why the atmosphere is uncomfortable,” Palestinian negotiator Jamil Tarifi said.

Besides the issue of the size of Jericho and the presence of a Palestinian border guard, Rabin and Arafat were seeking to agree finally on the release of thousands more Palestinian prisoners; Israel has agreed to free 5,000 within the first two weeks of the agreement.

Israel, in general, has agreed to free those prisoners who say they will support the peace process. But Palestinians have pushed, as much as possible, to include prisoners from the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas and other opposition groups in a bid to elicit their support once the Palestinian Authority takes power.

A draft of the final agreement, obtained earlier Tuesday by The Times, sets up a schedule of Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho over the next three weeks. A new, 9,000-member Palestinian police force will assume responsibility for “public order and internal security” while Israel maintains its responsibility for protecting international borders and defending against external threats.

The agreement says the Palestinian Authority, headed by Arafat, should take “all measures necessary” to prevent crime and terrorism and to prevent hostile acts directed at Israeli settlements and military installations remaining in Palestinian enclaves.

Israel retains the right to return its troops to the Palestinian enclaves in the event of “an outbreak of general hostilities” or in cases where the Palestinian Authority is unable to prevent attacks against Israeli settlements.

The draft also establishes terms of a new international presence in Gaza and Jericho, in addition to the 160-member international observer force already agreed on in Hebron in the wake of the Feb. 25 killing there of about 30 Palestinians by a Jewish settler.

Describing the framework of the accord over the weekend, Shaath said the agreement will open a vista of possibilities and freedom for Palestinians.

“We all must see that the road to peace is being opened, and the Palestinian people will see the fruits immediately. I can say now without any reservation that we have a good agreement, a good agreement for the Palestinians, a good agreement for the Israelis,” he said.

“The moment we sign this agreement, the next day and for a week, 6,000 Palestinian police will go in, 5,000 prisoners will be released in two groups, people will start seeing Palestinian ports, airports, television stations, radio stations, economic institutions, their own electricity, their own telephones, their own government, their own passports. . . . People will start seeing for the first time a real opportunity to develop their own future,” Shaath said.

Times research assistant Aly Assem contributed to this report.