Camp David negotiations in a vicious circle
Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Wednesday held a bilateral meeting in camp David.
The Israeli Minister of the Interior Shloumo Bin Ami said that talks between the two sides had started and that discussions held during the two past days in the presence of the US President Bill Clinton were preliminary.
The US President has set one week for himself to reach an agreement between the two sides as he will leave to Japan on July 19 to take part in the G-8 summit. He asked his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to stay at the Camp David with Barak and Arafat. The White House said that Clinton and Barak and Arafat had discussed on Wednesday all substantial issues concerning the 52- year old Palestinian - Israeli conflict in the Presidential resort of Camp David.
In a statement, the spokesman for the White House Joe Lockheart said that it is enough to say it was an eventful day. He only remarked the general details of the talks saying that President Clinton held two separate meetings with Barak and Arafat and is planning to bring together 40 members of the American, Israeli and Palestinians negotiations at a dinner banquet, SANA reported. The statement said that Barak proposed to the Palestinian side a direct administrative supervision on the Arab quarters in the occupied city of Jerusalem. The Israeli army radio correspondent said that it is for the first time that Israel proposes such an offer, claiming that Barak hopes the Palestinian government will send its representatives to the headquarters where negotiations are to be held on issues pertinent to security, the economy and waters as members of the Palestinian delegation abstained from taking part in these negotiations unless a progress is attained in substantial issues of main conflict between the two sides including the question of the city of Jerusalem and the refugees.
The correspondent added it seems so far that the negotiations are in a vicious circle and that the only achievement is the increased smiles and the words of protocols exchanged between Arafat and Barak. Barak, according to the radio, said the negotiations in Camp David with the Palestinian side aims at reaching an agreement that guarantees what he calls Israel's security. He expressed his conviction that most of the Israelis will agree such an agreement.
Barak's statements were expressed in a telephone call he made on Wednesday's evening with the Israelis who gathered at Rabin's square in Tel Aviv in support of him and the negotiations he is currently making in Camp David.
Meantime, the Israeli Defense Minister Afraem Seneh said that an agreement cannot be reached unless finding out what he called a solution for the question of occupied Jerusalem.
Seneh explained that the city of Jerusalem should not be divided. Rather there should be what he described as flexibility concerning responsibility over the city's municipal services.
For his part member of the Israeli Knesset from the Arab list Ahmad al-Teibi said that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators started negotiations over Jerusalem and that several ideas has been debated to this effect. Al-Teibi doubted possibilities of finding out a solution to this question at Camp David meeting. He said there is a need for convening other meetings.
Meanwhile, the spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to Camp David meeting Hanan Ashrawi denied any proposal made by the US to bridge the gap between the Palestinian and Israeli stances.