Arafat OKs Foreign Role in Reforms

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said Friday after high-level talks between Palestinians and the United States that American, Egyptian and Jordanian officials would oversee reforms to Palestinian security services.

Security reforms and elections pledged by Arafat under international pressure are seen as crucial to reviving talks with Israel on a Palestinian state after 22 months of violence against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Washington on Thursday, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and three other Cabinet members addressed Palestinian reforms to help overcome the Middle East’s bloody stalemate.

Arafat, in an interview Friday with the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, described the talks as “positive and constructive” and said it was agreed that foreign experts would help overhaul the Palestinian security apparatus.

“There is an agreement that Americans, Egyptians and Jordanians will come and administer the training of our security branches,” Arafat said from his West Bank compound.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon branded the Palestinian Authority a “murderous gang.”

The Palestinians said Sharon’s broadside was an attempt to sabotage their first high-level talks with Washington in months.

There was new violence Friday as Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank town of Tulkarm, witnesses said.

The army said soldiers acted after being fired upon. Tulkarm has been occupied by the military and under curfew since June, after a spate of suicide bombings in Israel.

In preparation for a possible Iraqi missile attack in the event of a U.S. assault on Baghdad, Israel has activated a new Arrow-2 antimissile battery, Israeli security sources said.

Israeli officials believe that the Arrow can fend off attacks such as the Scud ground-to-ground missile barrages Israel suffered during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.