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Monday, 19 October 1998
Q U E E N S T O W N , M D . (AP)
ISRAEL SUSPENDED all negotiations with the Palestinians on issues other
than security Monday after a bloody attack at a busy Israeli bus stop
threatened already lagging Mideast peace talks.
A senior Palestinian official, Yasser Abed Rabbo, dismissed the Israeli
move as "cheap blackmail."
President Clinton said the grenade attack was a "complicating factor" in the
talks, which entered their fifth day Monday. But he returned as planned to
the secluded conference site along the Wye River to try to coax Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
to conclude a land-for-peace deal.
Clinton then held a three-way session with the two leaders, P.J. Crowley,
a spokesman for the National Security Council, said.
It was the first time Netanyahu and Arafat had met face-to-face since last
Friday and the first three-way session involving Clinton since then.
The president and the CIA director, George Tenet, also had an
unannounced meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai and
Maj. Gen. Shlomo Yanay, a top Israeli security planner, Palestinian and
Israeli sources told The Associated Press.
Clinton began his fourth day of mediation with a 45-minute joint session
with Israeli and Palestinian security experts. He then talked to Netanyahu
for an hour and conferred with Arafat.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart declined to say how long the
already extended summit would last. "It is virtually impossible to predict,"
he said.
Netanyahu consulted Monday with senior Cabinet officials, then declared
that "for progress to be achieved on other issues, we must first focus on
security and terrorism. We are awaiting answers from the Palestinians
today."
The Israeli leader said that he would not stay on Maryland's Eastern Shore
"for an unlimited period of time" and that the United States and the
Palestinian delegation had been notified that Israel was postponing
discussion of a projected opening of a Palestinian airport in Gaza.
Netanyahu declared a land-for-peace accord was impossible unless
Arafat's Palestinian Authority lived up to the security commitments it made
in past agreements with Israel.
The Americans and the Palestinians worked together, meanwhile, to try to
ease the discord.
Arafat telephoned Netanyahu to condemn the attack as regrettable and to
pledge there would be an investigation.
Arafat and Netanyahu said in a joint statement issued by the State
Department that the terrorist attack "demonstrates the critical importance
and urgency of fighting terror and pursuing peace."
State Department spokesman James P. Rubin called the attack "tragic and
cowardly."
He said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had met with Arafat and
there were "informal contacts" between Israelis and Palestinians, as well.
Palestinian sources said Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon had met with
two senior Palestinian officials, Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qurie.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinians
continued to press for release of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel and
for full control of about 14 percent of the 27 percent of the West Bank that
Israel already has agreed to relinquish.
The swath of land is now under joint security control.
Current negotiations are based on Israel's willingness to surrender a further
13 percent of the territory, with 3 percent designated as a nature preserve.
Security would be jointly controlled by Israel and the Palestinians.
Rubin said attacks had caused temporary setbacks to peacemaking in the
past, and "we are going to work a hard as we can today" on an agreement.
Clinton deplored the attack before leaving Washington and acknowledged
negotiators were having a tough time.
"The issues are difficult," Clinton said. "The distrust is deep. The going has
been tough. But the parties must consider the consequences of failure and
also the benefits of progress."
A senior Netanyahu adviser, David Bar-Illan, said that the attack in
Beersheba, which injured more than three score Israelis, was the 10th in a
series over seven weeks, and that the Palestinian Authority had done
nothing about most of them.
Rubin disagreed. He said the Palestinians had improved its security
arrangements.
"Clearly, if the Israelis do not show up for committee meetings, there will
not be committee meetings," Rubin said. But, he added, "we are continuing
to work as hard as we can today." |
