Arafat expects positive results - Albright mad as heck
Regional-Palestine, Politics, 10/8/1997

The Palestinians expect to see positive results from the summit meeting within the next few days, said PNA President Yasser Arafat's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh after the sudden summit between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Abu Rudeineh noted that those results could be seen in the resumption of work committees on a number of issues that are still subject to negotiations between the PNA and Israel. Those issues, he said, were all related to the implementation of the outstanding clauses of the interim agreement between the PNA and Israel which the latter has so far failed to implement. Abu Rudeineh said all of the issues that led to the freeze of peace talks were discussed during the meeting. Peace negotiations between the PNA and Israel came to a halt after Israel announced last March its plans to build the new Jewish settlement of Har Homa on Jabal Abu Ghaneim in East Jerusalem.

The meeting lasted some three hours, half of which was a tet-a-tet meeting. The two later were joined by PLO Executive Committee member Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Palestine Legislative Council speaker Ahmad Qurei' (Abu Ala') from the Palestine side and Netanyahu's special advisor Yitzhak Molcho and US Special Envoy Dennis Ross who was the driving force behind the meeting.

Ross, who is due to leave back to Washington and return to the region next week, said after the meeting that the Palestinians and the Israelis had agreed to resume negotiations at all levels and that they would continue to meet regularly. He said however that there are still large discrepancies between the two sides. A senior political source said that the meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere, and that it was also agreed that the meetings between Israeli and Palestinian security services would be resumed. Journalists were barred from the Erez Checkpoint where the meeting took place and no announcement in advance was made. On the contrary, both Palestinian and Israeli officials insisted, hours before the meeting, that hard differences had forced both sides to postpone the meeting to Wednesday noon or even later.

Meanwhile, the meeting between Palestinian and Israeli representatives in Washington, originally scheduled for October 11, has been postponed until the end of the month and will be attended by Abu Mazen and Israeli Foreign Minsiter David Levy, who was rushed to hospital Tuesday night after complaining of chest pains. His condition is good. It is not clear whether the postponement of the Washington meeting was only a result of Levy's admission to the hospital or due to differences that erupted between him and Netanyahu on the failed Mossad assassination attempt on Hamas leader in Amman, Khaled Mishal, and also on the last minute meeting with Arafat. Sources in the Israeli foreign ministry said Levy was angry because he did not know in advance of the meeting with Arafat.

The sudden summit meeting between Arafat and Netanyahu came amid reports from Washington saying the US Administration has been disappointed at Israel and that even US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has for the past few weeks refused to speak directly to Netanyahu on the phone. Reports from Washington said Netanyahu had called Albright on a number of occasions but has always been told the secretary of state was not available to speak to him. One of Albright¹s senior advisors was quoted on Wednesday as saying that Netanyahu "was lucky she didn¹t want to talk to him because she is furious with him, and she would have said some harsh things."

Albright first became angry with Netanyahu when he announced three weeks ago the construction of 300 new housing units in the Jewish settlement of Efrat near Bethlehem on the West Bank just minutes after he spoke to her on the phone without saying a word about the matter. She was then caught by surprise when journalists asked her about the issue. A day later, Netanyahu tried to speak to Albright on the telephone, but she refused to talk and instructed her aides ³not to transfer that call to me.² One of her senior aides relayed the story to an official at the Israeli embassy and added his opinion: You¹re lucky Albright didn¹t pick up the phone.

A day before the meeting between Arafat and Netanyahu, Israeli president Ezer Weizman, currently on a visit to the US, had met with President Bill Clinton who reportedly said was reluctant to call a Camp David-style summit meeting between Arafat and Netanyahu to solve all the outstanding issues of dispute between the two sides. US sources said that President Clinton intends to invite Netanyahu to a meeting at the White House, after the president has become convinced of the need to become more involved in the Middle East peace process. The first step will be inviting Netanyahu to Washington, the sources said, and later Arafat might be invited too for what may end up becoming a three-way summit.

Previous Stories:
  Israel plays Hamas against Palestinians as Ross arrives   (10/5/1997)
  Talks to resume next week. Obstacles remain   (9/30/1997)
  New settlement plans near Jerusalem on eve of peace talks in US   (9/29/1997)

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