Israel may be flexible in allowing the international commission of inquiry into the two-month-long Al Aqsa Intifada to get under way, a senior diplomatic source told Haaretz on Thursday.
He said Israel is willing to agree to teams of experts joining the commission's work, so long as the terms of reference are agreed to in advance by both sides.
Nonetheless, the paper added, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami three days ago expressed his apprehension, given the current confrontation, in a telephone conversation with the head of the commission, the former US Senator, George Mitchell.
Ben-Ami was quoted as saying the commission should not have to operate in the current "state of chaos. It is impossible to implement only [parts] of the Sharm al-Sheikh understandings, such as a commission - which suits [Palestinian Chairman Yasser] Arafat - and ignore the call for an end to the violence."
Mitchell is expected to convene commission members for their first meeting in New York on Sunday, according to the paper.
The UN Security Council met Wednesday to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, but took no decision about the violence, AFP had reported.
The Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Nasser Al-Kidwa, was quoted as urging the council to vote for a draft resolution to be submitted next week calling for about 2,000 unarmed UN observers in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
"Let us be frank," he said. "The parties, after all that has happened, cannot put an end to this violence alone."
The Israeli ambassador, Yehuda Lancry, retorted that "an international force, whether of peacekeepers or observers, is not needed to stop the violence."
And added: "Nor is it even clear whether such a force would be successful."
The United States, one of five permanent members with a power of veto in the council, said it would reject any proposal that did not have the support of both sides – (Several Sources)
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