Tenet meets with Mideast security officials

Israelis, Palestinians OK plan to stop fighting

Jewish boys look at a bullet hole in a pole near the location where two Israelis were shot Wednesday

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- U.S. CIA Director George Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian security officials on Wednesday after both sides approved his blueprint for a "cessation of hostilities."

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat approved the deal Wednesday after it was conditionally accepted by Israel. The plan's aim is to end the violence that has claimed around 600 lives, nearly 500 of them Palestinians and more than 100 Israelis since last September, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Israeli officials.

The blueprint follows recommendations by the Mitchell Committee, an independent, international panel headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.

VIDEO A review of the diplomacy surrounding the truce, from CNN's Jerrold Kessel (June 13) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     ACCESS Dennis Ross: Still 'a long ways to go' in Mideast

The five-man group issued a report last month calling for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" by both sides and a resumption of joint security cooperation. After those steps, it recommended a freeze on Jewish settlement construction; Palestinian denunciation of "terrorism"; limits on the use of lethal force by the Israeli military; the end of firing on Israeli soldiers and civilians from Palestinian-controlled areas; and negotiations to resolve underlying causes of the conflict.(More on Mitchell report)

U.S. President George W. Bush, in Brussels, Belgium, for a meeting with NATO allies, said that he had spoken with Tenet and that the CIA director was "cautiously optimistic" about the future of relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

"Our country recognizes that an end to violence is a necessary first step toward implementing the Mitchell Committee report and a resumption of real negotiations," Bush said. "All the parties must now take additional steps to put them on road to a just and lasting peace. All the parties must build trust by acting in good faith in words and most importantly in deeds."

While the Palestinians accepted Tenet's blueprint, Palestinian sources said, they rejected a clause proposing a buffer zone around Palestinian-controlled areas.

Arafat, in a letter to Tenet, noted his acceptance of the blueprint but his rejection of the buffer zone clause and said the timetable for lifting Israeli closures of Palestinian territories should follow the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, according to Palestinian sources.

That deal, reached at an Israeli-Palestinian summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in October, called for closures to be lifted 48 hours after a cease-fire agreement was reached.

The Palestinian sources said Tenet promised the Palestinians there will be a timetable for the lifting of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement.

Tenet won Israeli acceptance and the reluctant endorsement of Palestinians for a cease-fire plan to end nearly nine months of violence

Another obstacle brought up in the meetings with Palestinians was the issue of arrests of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant leaders. Israel had a list of those it demanded to be arrested.

Arafat has said he would arrest only people who broke the law after his June 1 declaration of a cease-fire.

Israeli officials had accepted the Tenet plan on Tuesday but also said they had reservations.

A statement from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said the United States was pleased about the acceptance of the proposal.

"Its purpose is to resume security cooperation, end the violence and restore the situation on the ground that existed before September 28, 2000," the statement said. "Steps will be taken immediately to implement the work plan."

"Our efforts with parties on this work plan are consistent with our strong commitment to implementation of the Mitchell Report in all its aspects as a package of sequential steps to end the violence, rebuild the confidence and resume negotiations," the statement added.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who is attending a NATO meeting in Brussels, Belgium, called Tenet to congratulate him on the agreement.

But in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian groups denounced the deal, saying they should be allowed to continue the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, as it is called.

Jewish settlers, who have been pushing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to abandon a self-declared cease-fire, also decried the Tenet plan.

The working plan Tenet has proposed would shore up two fragile, independently declared cease-fires into a formal truce agreement between the two sides.

After word of the agreement was announced, a Greek Orthodox monk traveling in a car carrying Israeli license plates was shot and killed in the West Bank. Israel said it was an attempt by Palestinian extremists to kill Jewish settlers.

In another shooting incident Wednesday, Israeli authorities said one Israeli woman was injured.

Over 500 people -- more than 400 Palestinians and more than 100 Israelis -- have been killed since the violence broke out.

Also in the region on behalf of the United States is newly sworn-in Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns.

U.S. officials said that while Tenet has been working the security angle -- a "critical part of the equation" -- Burns has been trying to secure Israeli and Palestinian approval of the Mitchell report's recommendations, in order to complete a timeline in which to rebuild confidence and resume negotiations between the two sides.

Both sides offered agreement as Tenet prepared to leave the region after five days of trying to get them to settle on a plan to end the violence.

Tenet's decision to depart put greater pressure on the Palestinians to decide whether to accept the proposal because the Israelis had already accepted it.