Barak names head of his team for talks with the Palestinians
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 10/26/1999

Palestinian sources welcomed Tuesday the appointment of Israel's ambassador to Jordan, Oden Eran, as head of the Israeli team for the final status talks with the Palestinian government. Yet they noted that what is important now is not naming the team head but to actually move along the road to a permanent status agreement that would finally bring peace to the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak took his decision Monday night, and immediately afterwards he called Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to notify him of the appointment. No date has been given for the official start of the negotiations, though an opening session already took place last September. However, observers note that both Arafat and Barak are due in Oslo on November 2 to attend a special memorial service for slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. That meeting, some observers said, could serve as a springboard for the final status talks to get off the ground.

In their summit meeting, Arafat and Barak are due to examine ways for holding the final status talks. Barak, his sources said, plans to ask Arafat to moderate his demands with regard to the major topics of the final status negotiations, mainly the issues of Jerusalem and the right of the Palestinians to return.

Press reports in Israel lately spoke of a Barak proposal to set up a Palestinian state in almost all the areas currently under the Palestinian government and defined as Area A in the Oslo Accords. Barak, the reports said, planned to present this plan before Arafat during their Oslo meeting next week as being the Israeli version of the framework agreement recently formulated by various officials in the prime minister's office, the foreign and defense ministries.

After the Eran appointment, Israeli messages came through to the Palestinians asking that they change the head of their team for the talks arguing that the head who Arafat named, Minister of Information and Cultural Affairs Yasser Abed Rabbo was "too hostile" to Israel to run peace negotiations. Abed Rabbo had lately accused Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak of following a racist anti-Arab policy when he spoke of his own view of separation between the Palestinian entity and Israel. He also condemned Israel's settlement policy in the Occupied Territories and said that with such a "colonial" approach the Palestinians can never reach a peace deal with Israel.

Regardless of who heads the teams and when they meet, both Palestinian and Israeli sources do not exclude the possibility that back channels already exist for secret talks between the two sides away from the media coverage. Close aides to Barak said that he might eventually run the talks opposite Arafat leaving the technical matters to be ironed out by the delegations of the two parties. Arafat, in the meantime, will be running the talks from behind the scenes, ready to step in once a major crisis breaks out between the negotiating delegations.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has already hinted to the fact that secret talks are underway between the two parties when she said Monday that Israel and the Palestinians can reach a framework agreement on final status by February, the target date stipulated by Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. Albright confirmed that there was activity behind the scenes, and that there is not always a need for public meetings, ceremonies and fireworks, as she put it, to mark progress.

Meanwhile, US special Middle East peace shuttle diplomat Dennis Ross is due to start a series of meetings in Israel and in the Palestinian controlled areas as of Tuesday afternoon Israel time. His visit is believed to be in preparation for the planned three-way summit in Oslo, which will comprise, in addition to Arafat and Barak, US President Bill Clinton. Palestinian sources said that Arafat plans to hold a tete-a-tete meeting with President Clinton before the three leaders sit together. Arafat hopes to convince the US President to put an extra pressure on Israel to stop the Jewish settlement activity in the occupied parts of the West Bank.

It took Barak quite a long time to decide on who is to lead his negotiating team with the Palestinians after the attorney general of the Israeli government objected to former chief negotiator Gilad Sher running the final status talks because of conflict of interests. Barak examined potential candidates to do the job, including head of the General Security Services, Ami Ayalon, and Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein. Both had rejected the offer.

Eran is not unfamiliar with the job he is going to receive soon. He had already served in the Israeli delegation under Gilad Sher during negotiations on the Hebron agreement. He reportedly enjoys a considerable respect among the Palestinian negotiators who saw in him a public servant open for proposals. However, Eran is expected to wait for updated instructions from his boss, Barak.

Previous Stories:
  Palestinian government asks Tel Aviv to move rapidly to implement its commitments   (10/16/1999)
  Palestinian government strongly criticizes Barak's settlement policy   (10/12/1999)
  Israeli - Palestinian meeting tomorrow to discuss prisoner issue   (10/9/1999)

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