Clinton Announces Mideast Peace Summit
Israeli And Palestinian Leaders Will Meet
The three leaders will gather at the presidential retreat of Camp David, MD, beginning next Tuesday. President Clinton said he hopes that the quiet setting will inspire their work towards peace.
Peace talks between Barak and Arafat are at an impasse, despite the September deadline for their completion. Clinton admits that the remaining issues are the "most difficult to resolve," and "charged with emotions."
Clinton said both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat endorsed his approach as the last best chance of shaping a settlement.
Reactions In The Mideast
However, shortly after the announcement, Israeli Interior Minister Natan Sharansky said he would resign and take his party out of Barak's government because he disagreed with Barak's peace policies. The move will further weaken Israel's fragile coalition government.
"Etched in each side's mind are intense fears and emotions and deep-seated commitment to defend their peoples' interests. There are no easy answers and certainly no painless ones and therefore there is clearly no guarantee of success," Clinton said in the White House briefing room.
"We'll do our best to have an agreement before the 13th of September," Barak said in Paris. "We have to be able to seize the opportunity."
But the chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia said "we don't have common ground on any of the issues. There are big gaps on all the issues - Jerusalem, refugees and borders."
Setting The Stage
This weekend, prior to the summit, U.S. mediators will meet here with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to try to pave the way for Clinton, Barak and Arafat.
And, a senior U.S. official said, Clinton and his aides intend to make proposals of their own. "We are going to help in any way we can,"said the official, briefing reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.
The Clinton Legacy
With six months left in his term, Clinton hopes to make a Middle East peace agreement part of his presidential legacy. His efforts have been slowed by traditional Arab-Israeli enmity.
Clinton's venture mirrors former President Jimmy Carter's hosting of a summit at Camp David in 1978 between the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
The result was a peace treaty the next year, the first between Israel and an Arab nation.
Clinton praised Arafat and Barak for agreeing to the summit and said courage was required from both as well as a realization neither could have 100 percent of his demands satisfied
"To delay this gathering, to remain stalled, is simply no longer an option," Clinton said.
The announcement followed an intense effort by Clinton and his advisers to bring the parties together.
Clinton tried holiday weekend telephone diplomacy to promote the summit, which Israel favors, despite Palestinian reservations.
The objective is to negotiate a framework for peace, with the two sides reported far from agreement on major issues, including the question of Israeli withdrawal from territory it has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War with the Arabs.
The two sides had earlier agreed that there would be a final status agreement by the Sept. 13 deadline, to set the lines for a permanent peace accord. Arafat has said he will declare a Palestinian state on that date unless there are conclusive settlement negotiations before then. Barak said Wednesday that the Palestinians should not make any unilateral moves to declare an independent state, warning that could lead Israel to act unilaterally, too.
The president said that if both sides work hard they could finish their work in "several days," though he did not impose a specific timetable. He said he may move back and forth between Camp David and his work in Washington.
"I will be there a lot and I'll work as hard as I need to work," the president said.
