Background for talks in Paris and London

Hours before the scheduled meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Palestinian official sources had expressed skepticism over a possible breakthrough in the peace process, noting that the meeting between Albright and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had brought nothing new and that Israel's stand has not changed at all.

"Netanyahu is trying to play with time at the expense of peace chances in the region and what we need now, more than ever before, is an influential intervention by the US to move the peace process forward," said a Palestinian official in Ramallah Thursday. "We think the US has to come up with its own timetable for the implementation of all three phases of Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank and to push forward the negotiation process on the basis of the Oslo Accords," he said. The official said he could not expect any major outcome from the meeting between Arafat and Albright "because the ball is in Israel's court anyway. It is Israel that need to move and if the US does not move Netanyahu forward, the whole peace process will remain hostage in the hands of extremism."

An official statement issued by the Palestinian cabinet after its meeting on Wednesday night had noted that Netanyahu hopes to gain time until US presidential campaigns start to be followed by Israel's own parliamentary election campaign in order to obtain what can be seen as an alibi for not implementing the accords. The statement criticized the flip-flop policy of the Israeli government and noted that two weeks ago, 16 out of the 18 ministers had voted in favor of the second phase redeployment "but now things have changed and the government has resorted to political maneuvers aimed at bypassing the commitment to implement the redeployment."

The Palestinian cabinet communique strongly attacked Israel's so-called map of security interests and insisted that the Jordan River and the Jordan Valley are an integral part of the Palestinian borders and under no means can they be used as security zones for Israel. It called for an immediate cessation to Jewish settlement activities in the occupied territories and said that settlements form a major stumbling block on the road to peace.

In his meeting with Secretary Albright in Paris, Netanyahu presented the principles for the final status arrangement that have been consolidated to date, as well as the parameters of the second phase of further redeployment, which is to consist of no less than 10 percent of the West Bank's Area C, currently under Israel's full control. After the meeting, Netanyahu told reporters he did not discuss the exact percentage of redeployment and that he reviewed a number of issues which he is not going to convey to the press before he presents them to the government in its weekly session on Sunday.

Netanyahu was due to present to Secretary Albright the map of Israel's security interests and details of the scope of redeployment but at the last minute he gave in to the position in the cabinet led by his infrastructure minister Ariel Sharon, and decided not to show Albright an up-to-date map of the security zones or national interests. US officials, however, had already been briefed by Israeli officials on these topics more than once.

Israeli defense minister, David Levy, who was shocked by the deal Netanyahu cut with Sharon, decided to boycott the trip to Paris saying that “if we are not going to go ahead with the negotiations, I stay in Israel.” Levy was furious at Netanyahu’s decision to discuss only two subjects with Albright: Israeli demands from Palestinians and security zones according to the Oslo accords. “For the first topic it would have been possible to send an army officer,” said Levy after the cabinet meeting Wednesday, “and for the second, a fax would have been sufficient.” Added Levy: The prime minister must not arrive in Paris with his hands empty. "It must not be a dead end, it will be like deaf people talking to each other. You cannot come without any ideas or anything, just to say hello to the lady.”

There is disappointment at the US State Department because Levy has decided not to accompany Netanyahu to his meeting with Albright in Paris, Israeli press reported Thursday, quoting senior officials in the State Department who were in close contact with Levy over the past few days as expressing support for his proposed plan to bring forward the peace negotiations. “If Levy believes that what Netanyahu is offering is too little, how can we accept it?” those officials said.

The US is not only disappointed with Levy’s failure to join the meeting, but is also frustrated because of Netanyahu's attitude that he has taken with him to Paris. Over the past few days, the US had come to believe that Netanyahu will present them with a map for a 12 percent redeployment but once Netanyahu accepted Sharon’s position, US sources reportedly expressed frustration and disappointment.