Albright fails to move forward, but keeps the ball in play
Regional, Politics, 2/2/1998

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright seems to be stuck with the present stalemate on the Palestinian track of peace talks between Israel and the Arabs. Her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Saturday and Sunday have obviously brought no real results except for the fact that both sides agreed to send emissaries to Washington to resume contacts there under US auspices.

Palestinian and Israeli emissaries are due to leave later this week for Washington and Palestinian officials said they do not expect any essential breakthroughs to take place. They blamed Israeli "intransigence" for the present stalemate and called for a more effective role by the US to force Israel into implementing the clauses of the interim agreements with the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a press conference after her meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday that very little was achieved. "I am not satisfied as much as I wanted to be with the answers I received from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chairman Yasser Arafat," she said noting that even before her current trip to the region, she did have hopes of achieving a breakthrough on this trip.

Palestinian sources said in Ramallah after the two-hour meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Secretary Albright that the decision to send emissaries to Washington was meant to indicate that the ball is still in play, that some progress is still being achieved and that more progress is hoped for. The sources said that none of the parties involved in the talks between Israel and the Palestinians, including the US Administration, are ready to admit that the present government in Israel is leaving the peace process with chances next to zero due to its failure to honor the agreed upon accords.

A senior Palestinian official characterized the meeting with Secretary Albright as "fairly good but without much substance." He said Albright was apparently over occupied with the standoff with Iraq and not with the Arab-Israeli conflict. "She wanted to give the impression that the US Administration is doing its best to put the peace process back on track but evidently her mind was busy somewhere else. She was thinking of ways to get a military strike on Iraq through," the official said.

Palestinian chief negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, said the Palestinian leadership has not named its emissaries to Washington yet but did not rule out the possibility that he might be one of those who are due to leave in a few days to the US. Erekat, who attended the meeting with Albright, noted that the Secretary of State herself had openly admitted that the main purpose of her present trip to the region is to discuss the current showdown with Iraq. He said that President Arafat stressed in his talks with Albright the need to implement all resolutions of the UN Security Council, both those pertinent to the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iraq.

President Arafat, said Erekat, made his remark in response to a question from Albright on the crisis with Iraq. In her press conference, Albright was asked whether Arafat expressed any kind of understanding of US military measures, if taken, against Iraq. She confirmed that Arafat agreed with her that UN Security Council resolutions be implemented but she did not go into any further details.

Palestinian sources said that in his meeting with Albright, Arafat demanded that the US honor its own letter of assurances it sent to the Palestinian leadership with regard to the three phases of Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank. The letter, signed by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, assured the Palestinians that there will be three phases of Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank before final status talks are conducted between the two parties. In the interim agreements, the third redeployment speaks of Israeli army withdrawal to "specified military installations" meaning army bases in addition to Jewish settlements. Palestinian interpretation of this clause maintains that by the end of the third phase redeployment, some 90 percent of the West Bank territories are to come under the control of the Palestinian National Authority while Israel keeps the remaining 10 percent until their fate is decided in the final status negotiations.

Meanwhile, PLO Executive Committee member Suleiman Najjab accused Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and his government of attempting ³to put a new reference for the peace process² and to evade the implementation of previous commitments to peace. Najjab said the Palestinians do not see any serious US effort to pressure Israel to abide by the signed agreements. He condemned demands made by Israel of the PNA to introduce further amendments to the Palestinian National Charter and said the move is only "a flagrant attempt by Israel to invent more pretexts not to honor any of the agreements signed with the Palestinians because apparently Israel is losing every reasonable justification for evading the implementation of the agreements."

Palestinian officials stress that the agreed upon amendment to the charter had been finalized back in April 1996 and the alterations were then welcomed and approved by both the former Labor government under Shimon Peres and by the US administration.

Previous Stories:
  Arafat honors Sheikh Ahmed Yassin   (1/30/1998)
  Hamas chief calls for halting cooperation with Israel   (1/29/1998)
  Albright is coming: no progress anticipated   (1/28/1998)

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