The new Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was frozen by the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, last night before it had even been put to his cabinet.
Mr Netanyahu, who signed the Wye River Memorandum with the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, at the White House on October 23rd, was due to present it to his ministers at a meeting yesterday. But the Prime Minister postponed the session, asserting that the Palestinians had failed to provide all the written commitments that the Wye deal entailed for their promised crackdown on anti-Israeli militants.
His Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, explained later a new Palestinian anti-terrorism blueprint did not provide for the arrest of 30 Palestinians alleged by Israel to have been involved in murderous attacks on Israelis. Until the blueprint was amended, Mr Netanyahu indicated, he would not convene his cabinet. "I won't show ministers an incomplete agreement," he said.
It was difficult to assess last night whether the delay is a minor snag or a major stumbling-block to the implementation of the Wye River deal, under which Israel is to withdraw from another 13 per cent of the West Bank.
One of the Palestinian officials who drafted the anti-terror blueprint, the Gaza-based security chief, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, insisted that the document covered all the required issues. Mr Ziad Abu Ziad, a Palestinian legislator, reflected the widespread Palestinian view of the delay when he said he believed Mr Netanyahu was now trying to evade his commitments under the Wye deal.
Critically, first indications were that the Americans, who brokered the new agreement, were inclining towards a similar assessment. A White House spokesman said the Palestinian blueprint was indeed satisfactory, but that the US would now see if it could find a way around the new obstacle. A State Department spokesman confirmed that the Palestinians had provided "the necessary plans".
Criticism of the Wye accord from inside Mr Netanyahu's coalition has been growing by the day. It was not much muted yesterday despite the release of American letters of guarantee - appendices to the main deal - which make clear US opposition to any unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians on May 4th next, the date on which the five-year negotiating period, mandated by Oslo, expires.
While it remains likely that the deal would win cabinet approval, it is by no means a foregone conclusion. At the meeting scheduled for yesterday, Israeli ministers were finally to have seen the maps showing which parts of the West Bank are now to be handed over.
The Palestinians were making plans to host President Clinton in Gaza on December 14th to mark the public cancellation of anti-Israeli clauses of the PLO covenant. As of last night, however, planning for that was on hold.