Officials: Arab leaders to urge end to suicide attacks

Kofi Annan, right, U.N. secretary general, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in New York, Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an effort to kick-start Palestinian security reform, Arab leaders have agreed to use their influence behind the scenes with various extremist groups to urge an end to nearly two years of relentless suicide attacks against Israel, senior U.S. officials and Arab leaders told CNN.

Officials admit they have little leverage to use with these groups -- including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.

But nonetheless they plan to argue that terrorist attacks are "not going to help" win a Palestinian state and instead will only "add to the misery of the Palestinian people," in the words of one senior Arab official.

The development came as two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance of a convenience store in southern Tel Aviv Wednesday night, killing at least three Israelis and wounding more than 40 people.

The "Madrid quartet" -- made of representatives from the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union -- held talks in New York Tuesday with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan and the Saudi representative to the United Nations. The meeting was aimed at flushing out the specifics of the Middle East vision President Bush laid out last month.

Despite broad consensus about the creation of a Palestinian state within three years, the United States differed sharply with other members of the quartet on the fate of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and whether security improvement is necessary before Israel must take steps to improve the living conditions for Palestinians.

Tuesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had a plan, developed with CIA Director George Tenet, to restructure the Palestinian security forces. The United States will present the plan to the Israelis and Palestinians.

Although diplomats familiar with Powell's security plan say it does not involve U.S. troops or monitors, one diplomat said it would mark an "active U.S. engagement," with U.S. experts on the ground.

"This is not going to be done by remote control," this diplomat said. "It is a substantial U.S. commitment."

Egypt also is expected to play an active role in the overhaul of the Palestinian security forces, diplomats said.

An international task force on Palestinian reform -- comprising quartet members and representatives from Japan, Norway, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and USAID -- is in place to oversee efforts to rebuild Palestinian institutions. Seven working groups have been established to deal with various aspects of that reform, including security, financial, civil society, and judicial.

Those groups would use benchmarks laid out in a 100-day reform plan, issued by the Palestinian leadership, to judge progress made by the Palestinians on the various aspects of reform.

The goal, diplomats and U.S. officials said, is for reform of Palestinian institutions to take place in tandem with the rebuilding of a credible Palestinian security force, paving the way for political negotiations once security improves and Palestinian elections take place in January.

"It's hard to imagine a peace summit or anything like that before elections and before there is an improvement on the security," a second diplomat said. "But we can't waste time. We have to work ahead."

But one senior U.S. official said the question is whether or not Israel will allow the rebuilding of the Palestinian security forces.

"If you're going to cook something, then you need an oven," this official said. In other words, he explained, it will not be possible to build a functioning Palestinian state without Israel's support.

U.N., Arab, and European officials have all argued any Palestinian reform must take place together with Israeli steps to ease closures and curfews and improvement of the humanitarian situation for Palestinians. President Bush has said such steps should only be taken after the security situation improves.

"The Israeli government has a chance of seeing real Palestinian reform," the second diplomat said. "If they are not seen as being cooperative, the fortune of public opinion will turn against them."

He added there are "real signs" that Israel is "looking to gain from these reform efforts and cooperate," noting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week to launch a worldwide effort to alleviate the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories.

While the working groups go about the technical business of rebuilding Palestinian institutions, the quartet's political envoys will be designing a road map to establish a Palestinian state within the three-year time frame laid out by Bush. Members of the quartet hope to review that plan in September, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

"Everything is being viewed within the three years," said another diplomat. "We are going to take this workplan and work backwards from three years to now to see what we need to do."

Arafat's role is one issue on which the United States has agreed to disagree with the rest of the quartet members and moderate Arab governments. While Bush said the Palestinians must elect a new leader before creating a Palestinian state, Powell failed to convince his counterparts that Arafat should be sidelined.

Arafat said Wednesday he would be willing to appoint a prime minister to share the day-to-day running of the Palestinian government, once elections take place and a Palestinian state is declared. Powell has said he would consider the idea, but not commit to it.