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| US Mideast envoy holds talks in Israel as double attack shatters calm
JERUSALEM, Aug 12 (AFP) - US Middle East envoy William Burns held talks with top Israeli and Palestinian officials Tuesday on a one-day visit overshadowed by back-to-back suicide bombings. Both sides were expected to urge Burns to pressure the other on its commitments to the peace process, with Israel and the Palestinians blaming each other for slow progress. BizVantage – Like a personalized newsletter for business, investment or technology. Burns had lunch with Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayad and held talks with Israeli top brass, including the defence ministry's political adviser, Reserve General Amos Gilad, a US embassy spokesman said. Burns will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at an undisclosed location in the evening, he added, as part of what Israeli officials say is a "maintenance" visit to check on progress in the peace process. The US envoy will also hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas and senior Jordanian officials in Amman on Wednesday, the US embassy in Jordan said. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said Israel would hammer home "the need for real action on the part of the Palestinian Authority" to deal with radical groups as a pre-requisite for peace, after twin suicide bombings on Tuesday. Two Israelis were killed and a dozen wounded Tuesday in a blast at a shopping mall northeast of Tel Aviv and in another attack at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Peled also said the latest attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah on Israel's northern border would also likely figure prominently in the talks with Burns, who is winding up a tour that took him to Moscow, Baghdad and Cairo. The Hezbollah attacks, which ended a seven-month lull, prompted both Israel and the United States to step up pressure on Syria and Lebanon to rein in the Shiite Muslim movement. Burns was expected to press Israel to tailor its plans for a controversial security barrier across the West Bank to protect itself from would-be Palestinian attackers. Washington sees the barrier as problematic to efforts to delineate the borders of a future Palestinian state. The Palestinians see it as a new Israeli bid to grab a chunk of the West Bank. The immediate dispute centers precisely around plans to wall off Ariel, the site of one of Tuesday's suicide bombings, which lies 20 kilometres (12 miles) inside the West Bank. Israeli officials are studying alternative ways to protect it. Peled denied there was a dispute with Washington over the need for a barrier and "we are reaching an understanding with the Americans" on the route, he said. Peled stressed that the two attacks boosted Israel's argument in favour of building the barrier. "Where the fence stops is where the terrorist enters and that's what happened today ... As long as the Palestinian Authority cannot prevent suicide bombers from crossing into Israel, we will have to continue building the fence." Peled said the future of Israeli-Palestinian efforts to move the roadmap for peace ahead depended on Palestinian determination to clamp down on militant groups. "It depends very much on the coming days; now is the moment of truth. Only if the Palestinian Authority begin immediately to dismantle the terrorist organisations and take real action on the ground will we have an indication that they are still serious about implementing the roadmap," he told AFP. The Palestinians, meanwhile, also pressed Israel to abide by its obligations. "Meetings and visits are important but have no impact if Israel does not implement the roadmap, continues to build the wall and opposes further pullouts from the occupied territories," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's top adviser. Burns is on a tour of the region and has already visited Iraq, Egypt and Israel for talks focused on Middle East peace efforts and the future of Iraq. jmm/srj Mideast-US
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