ASSOCIATED PRESS
The State Department criticized the Palestinian Authority yesterday, saying it had failed to carry out a serious and credible investigation into a bombing that killed three Americans in the Gaza Strip in October.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States had given the Palestinian Authority some information about who might have killed the three Americans.
“We are looking for action here,” he said.
On Wednesday, Palestinian security chief Jibril Rajoub, speaking at the Saban Center of the Brookings Institution, said it was only a matter of time before arrests were made.
However, a senior U.S. official said although the State Department had some information, it did not have enough to solve the bombing case. The U.S. official, declining to be identified, said it was up to the Palestinian Authority to conduct a thorough investigation.
Three American security guards were killed and a fourth seriously injured as they escorted U.S. diplomats in October to interviews with Palestinians for Fulbright scholarships.
The State Department has offered up to $5 million as a reward for information leading to arrest and conviction. The identities of informants will be protected and their families relocated for safety, the notice said.
The Palestinian Authority also came under criticism from the U.N. Middle East envoy for slow progress toward reforms, leading to a threat of boycott.
Yesterday, the Palestinians backed off a move to ban the envoy, Norwegian Terje Roed-Larsen, from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but stepped up their attacks against him.
Briefing the U.N. Security Council on the Middle East situation Tuesday, Mr. Roed-Larsen, who is nearing the end of his term, expressed frustration at the lack of progress toward peace and blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for blocking vital reforms in the Palestinian Authority and peace moves backed by the world body.
Later, the Palestinian leader’s top adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, described the U.N. envoy as “useless” and said he no longer was welcome in Palestinian areas.
But Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations, said Mr. Roed-Larsen’s legal status has not been decided and would be discussed with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan after he returns to New York next week.
“We respect the United Nations as an institution. We know the rules and we play by the rules. No actions will be taken to prevent Mr. Larsen from entering the Palestinian territory. However, the position of the Palestinian officials is something else,” Mr. Al-Kidwa said.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a violent offshoot of Mr. Arafat’s Fatah movement, called for a boycott against Mr. Roed-Larsen. “We do not give him permission to enter any Palestinian territory,” the group said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.