ALTHOUGH the US has gained much of the credit for negotiating the Hebron deal, the European Union played an important part in finalising the agreement. It has led to Israel's redeployment from 80 per cent of the town.
The Palestine Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat, mentioned a "European letter of assurances", along with an American letter, in his speech to thousands of Palestinians gathered outside the old Israeli military headquarters during his first visit to the town on Sunday.
The texts of this letter and the parallel "US letter of assurances remain a well kept secret. A usually informative source in the Palestine Authority made it clear that the parties to this correspondence intend that the contents of these letters should not be revealed "at this time".
However, The Irish Times has learned from another high ranking PLO source that on January 12th, at a small gathering in honour of the EU "special envoy", Mr Miguel Moratinos, the Spanish ambassador to Israel, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, agreed that Europe would give a "collatoral letter of assurances" to the Palestinians.
This invitation to the EU amounted to a volte face as the US and Israel had previously opposed a European role. Later that day King Hussein consulted Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu and achieved the breakthrough which led to the initialling of the long delayed Hebron accord.
The source, who has seen an Arabic summary of the US and EU letters said the texts are very similar. "We have a good, strong letter from the US," he asserted. "And the European letter - taking into account the fact that Europe's position is much better from our point of view - is stronger than the US letter." These letters support a "reasonable interpretation of the (second) Oslo agreement" of September 1995 and assure the Palestinians that "everything the two sides signed will be honoured".
Specifically, the letters assured the Palestine Authority that Israel would not be allowed to retain large areas of the West Bank after the redeployment of its troops. The Palestinians were alarmed by the US and Israeli interpretation of a letter sent to Mr Netanyahu by the outgoing Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher.
Palestinians feared that Israel, determined to deny them the land for their state, would hold on to 40 or 50 per cent of the West Bank, instead of handing over 80-90 per cent as the Palestinians expect.
The letters have not been published, the source said, because "we do not want to undermine Netanyahu's position".
The Palestinians also received "assurances" from Egypt and Jordan which, combined with the European letter, they believe redress the imbalance created by the close relationship between Israel and the US.
