Cease Fire

Black church and community leaders yesterday demanded an immediate cease- fire in the Persian Gulf and announced a plan of action designed to force President Bush to institute one. "The cease-fire is at the top of our agenda," said the Rev. Benjamin Chavis of the United Church of Christ's commission on racial justice. "It is providential that on the day we meet, the government of Iraq would for the first time call for a withdrawal from Kuwait. However, we are dismayed and shocked by the Pentagon's insistence on continuing the bombing, later endorsed by the President.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said this morning he foresees no last-minute problems that would interfere with the announcement of a cease- fire in the 8-year-old Iran-Iraq war. "The solution of the problem is now a matter of a few hours," Perez de Cuellar said as he arrived at the United Nations. He said he expected to announce a date for a cease-fire to take effect during an afternoon Security Council meeting. "I think I cannot imagine any last minute difficulties.

The decent people of Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant alike, have lived too long in the shadow of the gunman - 3,100 violent deaths since the current version of the "troubles" began in 1969. But now, there is hope that this dark specter may be in retreat. The Irish Republican Army yesterday declared "a complete cessation of military operations" that we can only hope will be permanent. In return, the British government should offer the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, a long- denied seat at the negotiating table to discuss the future of the turbulent province.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a reversal that could clear the way for peace in the Persian Gulf, said yesterday that Iraq would agree to a cease- fire with Iran if Tehran promised to join direct talks immediately after the truce. The Iranian government had no immediate response to the Iraqi turnabout, but an Iranian diplomat in New York said he believed Hussein's statement could be a "breakthrough" for the start of comprehensive peace negotiations. Iraq previously had insisted on holding direct negotiations before any truce was set. Iran, which has insisted that any cease-fire come first, rejected the demand.

Iranian leaders told their countrymen yesterday that the war with Iraq was not over and urged them to stay on guard. Each side accused the other of belligerent acts. President Ali Khamenei said Iran "must not trust the deceiving enemy; therefore we say that the war is apparently, not definitely, about to end. " Both Iran and Iraq have accepted U.N. Resolution 598 calling for a cease- fire in the 8-year-old war. The truce is to go into effect Aug. 20. Tehran Radio, quoting Khamenei's remarks, said he was speaking at ceremonies in Iran yesterday where "people from all walks of life donated tens of millions of rials in cash and tens of pieces of gold to assist at the war fronts.

The words of Iranian President Sayyed Ali Khamenei rang hollow when, in an address yesterday to the United Nations General Assembly, he condemned the U.S. attack on an Iranian ship in the Persian Gulf. He said it was a peaceful merchant ship. But American Navy fliers caught it in the less-than-peaceful act of laying mines. President Khamenei's speech put a damper on slim hopes that Iran might agree to abide by a U.N. resolution of July 20 calling for a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war. Although diplomats were waiting eagerly for his answer, he still didn't give a clear yes or no. That cease-fire seemed to offer the best hope for defusing growing tension in the gulf, where the number of mines seems to be growing in proportion to the number of mine sweepers (25 from the United States, the Soviet Union and five European countries will soon be in place.

Efforts to persuade Iran to accept a U.N.-mandated cease-fire moved behind closed doors yesterday, and there were hints that a compromise might be reached in time for the secretary-general's luncheon today with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Secretary of State George P. Shultz met with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and later described the discussions as "constructive and productive.

President Corazon C. Aquino has selected a five-member, "high-caliber" team to represent the government in preliminary cease-fire talks with leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the government said yesterday. The talks, long promised by Aquino but as yet unscheduled, are a major step in the government's efforts to bring an end to the 17-year-old war between the armed forces and the New People's Army (NPA), Asia's fastest-growing insurgency. In the three months since Aquino assumed power, the fighting has become increasingly bloody, with at least 1,050 guerrillas, soldiers and civilians killed.

The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have authorized Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar to begin a peace mission to the Persian Gulf next week, the New York Times reported today. U.N. officials were quoted by the Times as saying the secretary-general would insist that Iran agree in advance to limit discussions to finding ways of implementing the cease-fire in the long Iran-Iraq war demanded by the Security Council in July. Perez de Cuellar also will insist that the two nations agree to a cease- fire during his visit, the Times said.

The founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines said yesterday that the communist insurgency would flatly reject the military's demands for a surrender of arms in the event of a cease-fire here. Jose Maria Sison, a former political prisoner who was released under a broad amnesty order by President Corazon C. Aquino shortly after she took power in February, also said the party would not compromise on basic negotiation issues such as land reform. Fighting in the provinces will continue until specific terms for a cease- fire are worked out, Sison said.

Shivering in a black wool coat, Shira Goodman scanned the small crowd assembled at an Ambler park, listened to the gun-control speeches by local activists and lawmakers, and awaited her turn at the microphone. Aside from the cold - particularly biting for mid-March - this is the type of scene Goodman had envisioned when she accepted the job as executive director of the gun-control advocacy group CeaseFirePA. What she never expected was that she would become something of a household name, a regular on the TV news circuit, and end up sitting on an advisory panel to Vice President Biden.

Just when our politics seemed destined to freeze into a brain-dead brand of partisanship, party lines started cracking up. Start with the progress on two of this year's central issues, gun safety and immigration. It was unfortunate that talks between Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Senate advocates of universal background checks were suspended because Coburn can't quite get to yes. But the fact that Coburn and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D., N.Y.) were negotiating at all, and stayed on cordial terms, means something.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The leader of the Islamic extremist group Hamas vowed Saturday to continue fighting Israel, as hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Gazans turned out to celebrate the organization's 25th anniversary. Khaled Mashaal's visit to the Palestinian territory - a first in his lifetime of exile - underscores Hamas' rising clout and regional acceptance since its eight-day conflict with Israel last month. At the main stage in Gaza City, a roaring crowd greeted Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who emerged from a door built into a large model of a rocket fired at Israeli cities during the recent fighting.

CAIRO - As supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi clashed Friday in the worst violence since he took office, he defended a decision to give himself near-absolute power to root out what he called "weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt. " Issued Thursday, the edicts have turned months of growing polarization into an open battle between his Muslim Brotherhood and liberals who fear a new dictatorship. Some in the opposition, which has been divided and weakened, were now speaking of a sustained street campaign against the man who nearly five months ago became Egypt's first freely elected president.

U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index up for a fourth day, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr announced a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Hewlett-Packard Co. rallied 2 percent after tumbling 12 percent yesterday. Salesforce.com Inc., the largest maker of online customer-management software, rose 8.8 percent after forecasting sales and profit that were in line with projections. Deere & Co., the largest agricultural equipment maker, fell 3.7 percent as earnings missed analysts' estimates.

JERUSALEM - A diplomatic push to end Israel's nearly weeklong offensive in the Gaza Strip gained momentum Tuesday, with Egypt's president predicting that airstrikes would soon end, the U.S. secretary of state racing to the region and Israel's prime minister saying that his country would be a "willing partner" to a cease-fire with the Islamic militant group Hamas. As international diplomats worked to cement a deal, senior Hamas officials said that some sticking points remained even as relentless airstrikes and rocket attacks between the two sides continued.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers traded fire and tough cease-fire proposals Monday, and threatened to escalate their border conflict if diplomacy failed. No deal appeared near. An Israeli airstrike targeting a Gaza media center killed a senior militant and engulfed the building in flames, while Gaza fighters fired 95 rockets at Israel, nearly one-third of them intercepted by an Israeli missile shield. The number of people killed in Gaza since the start of Israel's offensive rose Monday to 109, including 56 civilians.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Two deadly car bombs and sporadic fighting marred a shaky holiday truce Friday in Syria, although thousands of protesters used the brief respite in the civil war to pour into the streets and demand President Bashar al-Assad's ouster. Chants of "Syria wants freedom!" rang out in the streets in the largest demonstrations in months, suggesting that a 19-month-old crackdown and sustained violence have not broken the spirit of those trying to rid the country of Assad's rule.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An international mediator told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that he hoped a four-day holiday truce could take hold in Syria this week, warning that another failure would worsen the fighting and increasingly threaten neighboring countries. Yet even this modest effort - the international community's only plan for scaling back the violence - appears doomed to fail. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, said the Syrian regime and some rebel groups promised to lay down their arms during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Friday.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The international envoy to the Syria conflict pressed his call for a cease-fire with Syrian officials during a visit to Damascus on Saturday while violence continued unabated throughout the country and a massacre of more than 70 people was alleged in eastern Syria. Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents the United Nations and the Arab League, has appealed for a truce between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's forces for the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Oct. 26. Brahimi arrived in Damascus on Friday after a tour of Middle East capitals to drum up support for the cease-fire, which he hopes will pave the way for a longer-term truce.