In a statement to the Commons in April 2002, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said Israeli forces had agreed to let Arafat travel outside Ramallah. In return, six men wanted by Israel would be taken from the compound to "a secluded location" in the occupied territories.
"Of these six, four have been convicted by the Palestinian Authority for involvement in the murder last October of Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi," Mr Straw said at the time.
One of those six was Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction that claimed responsibility for Zeevi's assassination. Mr Straw said another man was being detained because of alleged involvement in the January 2002 Karine A arms shipment.
Mr Straw said that, under the initiative, Britain and the United States had agreed to provide "a small number of supervisory wardens to oversee the men's detention".
"The wardens will be unarmed. Let me make this clear: it is the prime responsibility of the Palestinian Authority to ensure the physical security of the facility and the personal security of the United States and United Kingdom wardens."
However, Israeli hardliners chafed at the deal, believing it allowed an assassin to escape justice. Palestinians also criticised the agreement, which forced them to jail one of their top militant leaders under Israeli pressure.
After Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, some leaders of the militant group said they planned to free Saadat.
Today, the foreign office minister Lord Triesman confirmed that the monitors had been withdrawn because the "Palestinian Authority has consistently failed to meet its obligations" to guarantee their safety.
"The UK and the US have repeatedly raised our concerns over the security of our monitors with the Palestinian Authority and urged them to meet their obligations under the Ramallah agreement. Unfortunately, there has been no improvement," he said.
"We therefore issued a joint US/UK letter to President Abbas on 8 March 2006. This letter said that we would have to terminate our involvement with the mission if the Palestinian Authority did not immediately either fully comply with the Ramallah agreement (which sets out monitoring arrangements) and make substantive improvements to the security of the monitors or come to a new agreement with the government of Israel. As required by the Ramallah agreement we informed the Israeli authorities that we were delivering a letter in these terms. I have placed a copy of this letter in the library of the House.
"Ultimately the safety of our personnel has to take precedence. It is with regret that I have to inform the House that these conditions have not been met and we have terminated our involvement with the mission today, 14 March 2006."
Later, the Foreign Office released the letter sent by John Jenkins, the UK consul general in Jerusalem, and Jake Walles, his US counterpart, to Mr Abbas on March 8.
The letter says the Palestinian Authority has "never fully complied" with the agreement that established the mission.
"While the six detainees - Fuad Shobaki, Ahmad Sa'adat, Iyad Gholmi, Hamdi Qur'an, Majdi Rimawi and Basel al-Asmar - are held in continuous custody at the Jericho prison, the Palestinian Authority has consistently failed to comply with core provisions of the Jericho monitoring arrangements regarding visitors, cell searches, telephone access and correspondence," it said.
"Furthermore, the Palestinian Authority has failed to provide secure conditions for the US and UK personnel working at the Jericho Prison. Repeated demarches by our governments to the highest levels of the Palestinian Authority have not resulted in improved compliance with the Jericho monitoring arrangements."
And in a reference to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, the letter added: "The pending handover of governmental power to a political party that has repeatedly called for the release of the Jericho detainees also calls into question the political sustainability of the monitoring mission."
The letter added that, if the mission was to continue, conditions at the prison must either be brought into line with the arrangements, or the Palestinian Authority must establish a new arrangement for the detainees with the Israeli government.
If neither happened, the letter warned that "we will have to terminate our involvement with the Jericho monitoring arrangements and withdraw our monitors with immediate effect".
