Talks to Resume

Israel Rethinks Suspension of Peace Talks


By Jeffrey Heller

J E R U S A L E M, Sept. 19 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said late
today that talks with the Palestinians which he had suspended earlier in
the day would resume Wednesday with a meeting between negotiators from
both sides.
Appearing to backtrack on his previous announcement, Barak’s office
said: “The contacts that are aimed at examining whether there is a basis
for the renewal of negotiations … will continue … tomorrow.
“The meeting is a continuation of the meetings that took place at the
beginning of this week, and after such a meeting did not take place
today,” it said.
It said Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher and his Palestinian counterpart
Saeb Erekat would meet Wednesday. Palestinian officials were not
immediately available for comment.

Talks Halted Earlier

Hours before, Barak canceled planned talks between Sher and Erekat,
blaming Palestinian intransigence for the hiatus in what was apparently an
effort to tighten the screws on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
“We decided on a brief timeout to summarize positions so far and to
make our own assessment,” Danny Yatom, a senior adviser to Barak, told
Israel Radio.
“We are not angry with the Palestinians and they are not angry with
us,” he said, calling on them to present “more constructive and moderate
positions so that the talks or contacts can be continued and the existing
gap can be bridged.”
Speaking at a news briefing at the White House today, President
Clinton said difficulties in the negotiation process were not surprising.
“They’re down to the difficult issues,” he said. “And I think you should
expect, from time to time, both sides to express some exasperation. As
long as they get back to the work, you should feel positive about it.”
In Paris Israel’s acting foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, denied
that his government had suspended talks with the Palestinians.
“The situation continues to be normal and nothing has been stopped,”
he told reporters after talks with French President Jacques Chirac on the
Middle East and in particular the fate of Jerusalem.

Heat on Clinton and Barak

The suspension put more pressure on President Clinton to broker a deal
before Barak has to face a largely hostile parliament eyeing early
elections when it returns in late October from a summer recess.
Barak took pains to explain that only informal contacts, and not
actual negotiations, had been held since peace talks ground to a halt at
the U.S.-brokered summit at Camp David in July.
“Since [Camp David] there have been contacts and discussion …
Negotiations will take place when Chairman Arafat agrees to discuss the
ideas that Clinton raised in Camp David and since then,” Barak said.
“We are not closing the door between us and the Americans nor between
the Americans and the Palestinians, nor even between us and the
Palestinians,” he said.
Israel and the Palestinians had been due to hold talks until
Thursday. But both sides had said already Monday the negotiations were
going nowhere despite two days of low-level sessions intended to reach a
deal before U.S. voters elect a new president in November.
Israel and the Palestinians have been at odds over key issues such as
the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. A 15-day, U.S.-brokered
summit at Camp David, Maryland, in July failed to wrap up a deal but won
Barak praise from Clinton for what the U.S. leader said was a willingness
to make concessions.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and considers all of the
city its united capital. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the
capital of their future state.
Last week, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mini-parliament
gave peacemaking another chance by postponing, at least until Nov.15, a
planned declaration of statehood.

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