Albright is coming: no progress anticipated
Palestine, Politics, 1/28/1998

Preparations are underway to receive by Saturday night the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who will arrive in Israel and possibly tour a number of Middle Eastern countries.

Palestinian and Israeli sources said Albright will meet separately with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. No three-way summit is anticipated for the time being, Palestinian sources said Wednesday. Albright is also expected to raise in her meetings with leaders of the region the possibility of a new US attack on Iraq. Such an attack has become more likely following Tuesday's strongly worded speech by US President Bill Clinton, who sent a direct warning to Iraq.

Albright will be giving "another last chance for peace," but her failure is almost certain. Assessment among Palestinians is that Albright will again face an adamant Netanyahu who has no intention to carry out the second and third phase redeployments of the Israeli troops in the West Bank. Albright is said to be embarking on an attempt to get both Israel and Palestine to accept the gradual implementation of the second phase redeployment, a matter raised by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians.

President Yasser Arafat told reporters upon his return to Gaza Tuesday that he rejects the proposal. His special advisor on Israeli affairs, Dr. Ahmad Tibi, who returned from a short visit to Amman with a letter from King Hussein to Arafat, said Palestine rejects the gradual redeployment "simply because it does not exist in any of the agreements previously signed between Israel and the PNA." He added that the proposal sounded like an Israeli attempt to renegotiate the whole interim agreements that were signed not only with the former Labor government under Yitzhak Rabin and later Shimon Peres but also the agreement on Hebron which was signed by Netanyahu himself.

The upcoming visit by Albright coincides with mounting warnings inside Israel that Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, is planning a series of suicide bomb attacks in the main cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Previous Stories:
  Netanyahu scores a major victory   (1/23/1998)
  Arafat - Netanyahu in Washington   (1/23/1998)
  Agreements and differences between Clinton and Netanyahu   (1/21/1998)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search