After a stormy meeting in Paris with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright failed to reach a cease-fire agreement early today, Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, promised to order their commanders to pull back and restore calm to flash points under their control.
At the end of the day, both commanders decided to pull back.
"I heard the riot police commanders order them to pull back to their positions.
Gen. John P. Abizaid, who heads the United States Central Command, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that American military commanders were considering a plan to pull back from policing duties by next spring.
To avoid fighting a long battle, the commander of the 2nd Battalion decided to pull back, and made preparations for a frontal assault on the next day.
In mid-November, as the Allied commanders debated the future of the campaign, the 3rd Brigade received orders to pull back from the frontline, so that it could be withdrawn to Lemnos Island for rest.
With his commander presumed dead, Nansouty did not know what the Emperor's orders were and thus promptly decided to pull back his men, to avoid further damage to his already battered division.
Nor do NATO commanders anticipate that American helicopters will be needed if fighting breaks out and NATO units have to pull back.
American commanders are eager to shift the fighting in Iraq to the country's own troops, allowing American units to pull back from the cities and, eventually, to begin drawing down their 150,000 troops.
Sharif agreed to pull back his troops.
