|
|
Change Your Life! |
Albright,
trying to speed up peace talks, meeting with Arafat |
|
News |
|
|
June 7, 2000
JERUSALEM, JUNE 6 (AP) - With Israel hinting of territorial concessions but complaining of delays by Yasser Arafat, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is meeting with the Palestinian leader as she tries to move the Middle East peace process forward. "We are there, ready to roll up our sleeves," Albright told reporters at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office on Monday. "There
really is a historic opportunity, and we have to pursue it full
speed." Albright,
on the second day of a three-day swing through the region,
was traveling to Ramallah in the West Bank for a meeting Tuesday with Arafat. Afterward, she was returning to Jerusalem for sessions with Barak and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy. The return visit was announced only Monday after Albright and Barak met for more than three hours. During
a break in Monday's talks, Barak suggested he was ready to return
more territory to Palestinian control than previously offered to conclude
a final accord over such sensitive problems as Jerusalem's future and how much land Arafat would have for a Palestinian state.
Concessions could involve about 93 percent of the West Bank, closer to Arafat's initial demand for Israel to cede 99 percent of the territory won from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. Barak already has virtually conceded establishment of a Palestinian state. Questioned at a news conference about reports that he had determined retention of the Jordan Valley was no longer essential for Israel's security, Barak said a land-for-peace trade-off was complicated. He said it was too early to talk about areas Israel intended to keep. "Basically, we need security and a settlement presence along the Jordan Valley," he said, "but the details can be decided only through negotiations." Barak has offered to dismantle settlements containing up to 60,000 Jewish settlers as part of a peace deal. And in a televised interview Monday, he said it would be a historic achievement if he could reach an agreement with Arafat that would keep 150,000 of the 200,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. And while he said "the more ground we have, the better," Barak accused Arafat on television of "a certain amount of foot-dragging" in the prolonged and tedious negotiations. Officials
in the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton have
urged both leaders to negotiate courageously, but the Americans insisted
they were making no separate proposals to cut through the impasse. "We heard very clearly Prime Minister Barak's commitment to an agreement, and the discussions (with Albright) focused on how to get there," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Albright,
who accompanied Clinton on his trip to Russia, passed up
his stop in Ukraine to follow up a meeting between the president and Barak
last week in Portugal and Clinton's telephone talk from there with Arafat. Albright aims to set up a three-way summit for Clinton with Barak and Arafat and to prod the Middle East leaders toward agreement by their promised mid-September deadline. A senior U.S. official, traveling with the secretary of state to Israel from Moscow, said at least one more Albright trip to the Middle East could be expected before a three-way summit. At Albright's request, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa agreed to meet with her Wednesday in Cairo. He will be in the Egyptian capital with several other Arab foreign ministers for a conference. Albright also will see Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi of Oman, and President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa of Egypt. Negotiations
between Israel and Syria broke down in January over whether
Israel would give up land all the way to the Sea of Galilee if it returned
the Golan Heights to Syria. Israel won the strategic high ground in the
1967 war. In the meantime, Clinton was meeting Tuesday in Washington with King
Abdullah of Jordan. If Israel turns over Jordan Valley territory
to the Palestinians, it could have an impact on Jordan's security. The
majority of Jordanians are Palestinian.
|