Arafat: Security talks with Israel to resume

Palestinian leader still confined to West Bank city

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- After Israeli tanks on Monday completed their pullback from positions outside Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, Arafat said Palestinians will resume security talks with Israel and the United States Tuesday.

A meeting between Arafat and Javier Solana, the European Union's security representative, preceded Arafat's announcement.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials have been meeting periodically at undisclosed locations -- usually late at night -- to discuss security issues and try to defuse tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

The last such meeting was held Thursday overnight but an expected Sunday meeting was cancelled by the Palestinians when the Israeli Cabinet agreed to allow Arafat to leave his Ramallah compound but kept in place restrictions preventing him from traveling outside the city.

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Arafat had been confined to his headquarters for more than a month, although the Palestinians had said he'd been moving about Ramallah on a regular basis.

Palestinian preventative security chief for the West Bank, Jibril al-Rajoub, said the Israeli decision to let Arafat move about Ramallah but not outside the city was a "clear-cut message to all of us that this government (Israel) has no political program.

The only program they have is the path of war and destruction."

But a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the Palestinians had misinterpreted the Cabinet vote, calling the decision -- to pullback the tanks -- "the first small step in easing tensions," following Arafat's arrest last week of three suspects in the killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze-evi last fall.

Earlier Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said it's using a number of channels to contact Saudi authorities about a proposal by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for ending the region's crisis. (Full story)

Restrictions imposed in December

The Israeli military imposed the cordon around Arafat's residence in December. Israeli airstrikes also destroyed two helicopters used by Arafat for travel around the region.

The restrictions on the Palestinian leader's movements and attacks on his equipment followed a spate of suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians in which more than 20 Israelis died -- and after the Israeli Cabinet described the Palestinian Authority as a "terrorist-supporting entity."

Israel had set two conditions it said must be met before it would consider lifting the travel restrictions on Arafat -- that the killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi be arrested and brought to trial and that those responsible for smuggling arms aboard a ship captured in the Red Sea by Israel last month be identified and punished.

Last week, Arafat announced the arrest of two men suspected of having assassinated Ze'evi on October 17 at an East Jerusalem hotel. Arafat said a third man, alleged to have ordered the hit, also had been arrested.

Arafat already had announced the arrest of one person involved with the ship captured by the Israelis en route to Gaza with 50 tons of smuggled arms, and he said he was looking for others.

-- CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna and CNN Correspondent Jerrold Kessel contributed to this report.