Netanyahu Delays Israeli Cabinet Vote on Peace Accord

The interim Israeli-Palestinian peace accord hit a snag Tuesday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he will not convene his Cabinet to ratify the pact. The Palestinians first must agree to arrest 30 fugitives as part of a promised crackdown against Islamic militants, his spokesman said.

Palestinian officials responded angrily to the announcement, which followed a request Monday from Netanyahu to delay implementation of the U.S.-brokered agreement for a day or two to allow Israel’s Cabinet and parliament time to vote on it.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Palestinian security officials already had outlined their plan to U.S. officials, who were satisfied with it. He accused Israel of seeking a pretext to avoid carrying out the land-for-security deal, which was signed Oct. 23 at the White House and was scheduled to take effect Monday.

Late Tuesday, there were indications that a compromise was in the works. U.S. officials said the three sides were engaged in intensive contacts, with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright having at least one telephone conversation with Netanyahu during the evening. Israeli officials said later that the Cabinet was tentatively scheduled to meet today to discuss the agreement, although no one would say if either side had yielded on the issue.

The likely outcome of the Cabinet vote, whenever it occurs, was also unclear. Most analysts were predicting a narrow margin of approval in the 18-member Cabinet, although at least six ministers have said they are undecided, and three are opposed.

What did seem certain, though, was that despite a fleeting atmosphere of goodwill early in the week, the path to implementation is destined to be rocky, with neither side trusting the other to fulfill its obligations.

Reached after a marathon summit at Maryland’s Wye Plantation and the personal intervention of President Clinton, the interim agreement calls on Israel to transfer to the Palestinians an additional 13% of the West Bank in exchange for a comprehensive Palestinian plan to combat Islamic extremists. It is scheduled to be carried out in three phases over a 12-week period.

The problem began when Netanyahu said he could not convene the Cabinet because a “key element” was missing from the security plan the Palestinians submitted to the CIA on Monday. Under the agreement, the CIA will monitor Palestinian compliance.

Netanyahu declined to specify the missing information but said he could not give the ministers an incomplete plan and ask them to ratify the accord. Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said later that the Palestinians had not followed through on a promise to include a list of 30 men suspected of killing Israelis, along with a timetable for their arrests.

“It’s an essential aspect of the agreement to us,” said David Bar-Illan, a senior aide to Netanyahu. “It seems to us that the Palestinians are trying to avoid their essential obligation: to fight terror and arrest terrorists. This is not a fringe detail.”

But Palestinian officials responded heatedly, saying they had already met their obligation to give a detailed anti-terrorism program to U.S. officials. Erekat accused Netanyahu of trying to break the agreement’s tight timeline, without which, the Palestinian said, “we don’t have an agreement.”

“He wants us to comply with all the requirements but at the same time asks us to excuse him for not [putting] this into force or even getting a vote from his Cabinet,” Erekat said. “We’ve done everything we were supposed to do by this point.”

The United States appeared to agree that the Palestinians had met their obligations in the security plan and that Israel should move ahead. But officials were careful not to push too hard.

“We believe that the Palestinians have done everything they’re supposed to do for the agreement to enter into force,” White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has raised some concerns, and we are working to try to work them out.”

U.S. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said the issues raised by Netanyahu are complex, but he noted that the Palestinian work plan “has been spelled out” as required by the Wye accord.

Rubin also said that U.S. mediator Dennis B. Ross and other officials will leave for the region soon to help with the implementation and work toward the opening of negotiations on a permanent Israeli-Palestinian accord.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.