Ross arrives with no initiative as right wing threatens walkout
Palestine-Israel-USA, Politics, 3/25/1998

US peace mediator to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, is due to arrive in the region Thursday on a short shuttle trip for meetings with Palestinian and Israeli officials.

Ross is expected to return to Washington by next Sunday, but US sources say he might extend his stay in the region if he finds positive results are in the making. Ross is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first and will hold a meeting later with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in his office in Ramallah.

Arafat's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, expressed hope that the US will present its own initiative to save the peace process and to consider the need for the implementation of all the outstanding clauses of the interim agreements. Abu Rudeineh called on the US administration to shoulder its responsibility as the main guarantor of the peace agreements.

Palestinian Minister of Higher Education Hanan Ashrawi said the Israeli rejection of the 13 percent scope of Israeli redeployment in the West Bank that was attributed to the US shows how intransigent the Israeli government is with regard to honoring its own commitment in the interim agreements.

"We do not expect Ross to bring any new ideas from the US Administration because we believe he wants to give a last chance for both sides to get closer and to bridge their differences," Palestinian sources in Ramallah said Wednesday. The sources noted that the US has so far refrained from announcing in the open its projection of how the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks can get off the ground and instead tried to hint at what the main structure of its own peace initiative would be if such an initiative becomes inevitable.

The Palestinian ambassador to Washington, Hassan Abdul Rahman, told the Voice of Palestine said the US "has not developed its initiative and has so far presented both us and the Israelis with a set of ideas." He noted that in reality "there is pressure on the Clinton Administration from the pro-Israel Jewish American lobby and from Israel itself to refrain from announcing any specific proposals."

Abdul Rahman did not confirm reports that the US has already suggested a 13 percent redeployment of Israeli troops in the West Bank but noted that press reports to this effect have not been denied by the US. He said the US ideas that were presented to the Palestinian side dealt with the ratio of the Israeli withdrawal in the West Bank, with Israel's unilateral steps and measures, with security matters and with the resumption of the final status talks between the two sides.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, seems to be under pressure again from his right-wing coalition members who threatened to join the opposition should his government go ahead with the redeployment plan in the West Bank. Knesset member Nisan Slomiansky of the ultra right wing National Religious Party threatened that he would join the opposition at any scope of redeployment because he is totally against any withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank.

Press reports in Israel expected Netanyahu to take a decision on the further redeployment in the West Bank shortly before the Knesset goes on recess in order to avoid a no-confidence motion that extreme right members of the Knesset might initiate. Sources within Netanyahu's office said he has prepared a plan to redeploy the Israeli army out of areas in the West Bank that should not exceed 11 percent of the total area and that such a redeployment would be linked to progress of construction works in the new settlement of Har Homa on Jabal Abu Ghaneim in East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's plan also maintains that talks on the third redeployment of the Israeli army will be left to the final status talks between Israel and Palestine.

Previous Stories:
  Israel offers no more than 10% redeployment   (3/24/1998)
  Ross to arrive in the region this week   (3/24/1998)
  US and Israeli plan details reported, embarrassment in Israel   (3/20/1998)

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

Search