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Israel to lift closure of WB, supply PA with more funds

Netanyahu vetoes plans for new Jewish settlement
JERUSALEM, Sept 15: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vetoed controversial plans for a new Jewish settlement in a Palestinian district of annexed East Jerusalem, his spokesman said, reports AFP.
"The Prime Minister considers that it is not a good time for the project and he will invoke reasons of security or the public interest to oppose its launch," spokesman David Bar-Illan said.
An Israeli interior ministry committee had earlier rejected, an appeal to stop an American' Jewish millionaire from building the 70 houses for Jews In Ras al-Amoud. at the foot of the mount of Olives in the Arab sector of Jerusalem.
The committee "decided to reject the appeal against the construction of six buildings in Ras al-Amoud." it said in a statement.
Jerusalem's rightwing mayor in July approved the plans by American millionaire Iriving Moskkovitz. But the Interior Ministry temporarily halted the project alter two leftwing Municipal Councillors
lodged an appeal against the decision, saying it threatened the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Reuter adds: Israel said on Sunday it would transfer to the Palestinian Authority more of the funds which it withheld after a double suicide bombing In Jerusalem in July killed 20 Israelis.
It described the decision as a goodwill gesture in view of Palestinian promises to Washington to combat Islamic militants seeking to sabotage Israeli-Palestinian peace-making.
It also announced that the so-called "internal closure" or siege of Palestinian-ruled towns and cities in the West Bank, imposed after a September 4 suicide bombing on Israel, would be lifted on Monday at 5 am (0300 GMT).
A general closure barring Palestinian entry to Israel would remain in force, the Israeli army said.
Palestinian officials said the Israeli moves were only a beginning.
They should not have done it in the first place." chief
Palestinians negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters. "And they should announce to total cessation of collective punishments of any kind."
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to free up 50 per cent of the remaining monies of the Palestinian Authority funds that were held up." said a statement issued by Netanyahu's spokesman Shal Bazak.
The prime minister decided on this as a goodwill step in the presence of the first steps in the area of the war on terror on the part of the Palestinian Authority.”
Israel transferred 12 million dollar, some 30 per cent of the funds, to the Palestinians in August.
The decision followed US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's debut visit to the region to resuscitate a peace progress that broke down over Jewish settlement building and Islamic militant suicide bombings.
Albright backed both Israel's demand that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat must
act to fight "terrorism" and Palestinian demands that Israel must refrain from unilateral acts such as building new Jewish settlement on lands It occupied in 1967.
Washington had said that Israel's decision to withhold tax and customs monies owed the Palestinian Authority was "counter-productive".
Netanyahu, who has said the peace process cannot go forward in the face of attacks on Israelis, told reporters at his office earlier there were now signs of action against Islamic militants.
He says Arafat must dismantle the "infrastructure" of militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad In areas he controls. He has accused Arafat of arresting militants under pres sure but freeing them at first opportunity.
Another AFP report says: Saudi Arabia stood firm Monday and opposed a US-backed Middle East economic summit with Israel until there is progress in the peace process.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal. in an interview with Asharaq Al-Awsat news-
paper. also said US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's tour of the Middle East has at least stopped the rot in the region.
"So long as Israel continues ... to ignore the principles on which the peace process is based, nothing can push Arab countries to change their stand on not taking part in multinational negotiations and the economic summit." he said.
Albright on Sunday urged Gulf Arab states at a meeting with their foreign ministers in Saudi Arabia to drop their threat of boycotting the Doha economic summit with Israel on November 16-18.
But the Gulf monarchies made their participation conditional on progress in the US-brokered peace process over the next two months. A Gulf official told AFP, asking not to be named.
"I believe what is important is not economic conferences or multinational negotiations but the peace process itself." said Prince Saud. "The other activities are not a substitute for but an addition to the peace negotiations."