JERUSALEM SUN STAFF WRITERS MARK MATTHEWS IN WASHINGTON AND JOSHUA BRILLIANT IN JERUSALEM CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE. — JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused yesterday to seek approval from his Cabinet of the latest interim Middle East peace agreement until the Palestinians provide a time frame for the arrest of 30 Palestinians suspected of acts of terror against Israelis.
The Palestinians accused the Israeli prime minister of looking for an excuse to renege on implementing the Wye memorandum, a "land-for-security" deal signed Oct. 23 after nine days of arduous negotiations in Maryland. They called for the U.S. sponsors to intervene and save the accord.
The dispute put the future of the Wye agreement in doubt. It delayed for a second time a meeting of the Israeli Cabinet at which Netanyahu was to have sought approval of the pact from his hard-line coalition government.
U.S Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright has spoken twice over the past two days with Netanyahu in an apparent effort to iron out problems that have surfaced since the Wye agreement was reached.
Her spokesman, James Rubin, declined to take a position on whether the Palestinians should set a timetable for making the 30 arrests.
"We're discussing clarifications of issues such as that," Rubin said.
The Clinton administration repeated yesterday that it was satisfied with the Palestinian plan to fight terror and increase security.
"In our view, the Palestinians have developed a security work plan in accordance with the Wye agreement," Rubin said.
Netanyahu said yesterday that the security plan was missing a "fundamental element" and canceled the Cabinet meeting.
"There was an agreement at the Wye River summit that the Palestinian Authority would hand the U.S. administration the commitment in writing to arrest and try the 30 wanted terrorists whose extradition Israel has requested over the past four years. This was supposed to be attached to the working paper on the campaign against the terrorist infrastructure. It is not there," David BarIllan, a top aide to Netanyahu, said last night.
"The prime minister will not present an incomplete agreement to the Cabinet for debate and approval."
The commitment is supposed to include a timetable for the arrests, said Bar-Illan.
The Wye agreement requires Israel to give an additional 13 percent of West Bank land to the Palestinians in exchange for a sustained campaign by the Palestinians against terrorism.
