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Capping days of stormy negotiations, CIA chief George J. Tenet won begrudging agreement from Palestinian and Israeli leaders on a cease-fire plan aimed at averting descent into a wider war, U.S. officials announced early today.
The mutual endorsement marked the most significant commitment yet to ending more than eight months of bloodshed, the deadliest fighting in this region in years. Earlier cease-fire attempts, however, have collapsed quickly.
Tenet threatened to suspend the talks Tuesday night, then held a last-ditch meeting with the main holdout, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. As the session dragged on into the early hours today, a U.S. Embassy official in Jerusalem said Arafat finally joined the Israeli government in accepting the spy chief's "work plan."
A Palestinian official confirmed the commitment. "We have accepted the American document. Implementation will begin tomorrow," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo told reporters, Reuters said.
Arafat reportedly continued to object to one provision: the creation of buffer zones between Israel and the Palestinian-ruled West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians fear that Israel will use the measure to seize additional Palestinian land.
As Arafat and Tenet met, Palestinian gunmen killed a Greek monk traveling in a car near an Israeli settlement just east of Jerusalem, the Israeli army said. Palestinian demonstrators also marched through Ramallah, a short distance from Arafat's headquarters, to demand that he resist American pressure to stop the battle against Israeli occupation.
Tenet's mediation effort was part of a campaign of urgent shuttle diplomacy undertaken in the last week by numerous international figures alarmed at the deteriorating situation here. The stakes are high. Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, deputy defense minister and daughter of late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak...