Jan Hus
01-04-02, 23:25
Mideast Talks End With Gain But No Accord
By DEBORAH SONTAG and WILLIAM A. ORME Jr. (NYT) 1372 words
JERUSALEM, Jan. 27 -- Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials concluded nearly a week of stop-and-start negotiations in Taba, Egypt, tonight by saying jointly that they have ''never been closer to reaching'' a final peace accord but lacked sufficient time to conclude one before the Israeli elections on Feb. 6.
Both sides also said Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, might meet within days in Stockholm. It would be their first face-to-face conversation since a dinner at Mr. Barak's private home just before the current violence erupted in late September.
At a joint news conference in Taba, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami of Israel called the two-way talks, from which the Americans were conspicuously absent, ''the most fruitful, constructive, profound negotiations in this phase of the peace process.'' He said the two sides hoped to pick up where they left off after the elections -- although his boss, Mr. Barak, is expected to lose.
Less expansively, Ahmed Qurei, a senior Palestinian official, spoke genially of a ''genuine effort'' at ''serious negotiations'' that could help restore trust between the two sides.
He said the Palestinians also hoped to resume the talks after the Israeli elections -- even if it was with Mr. Barak's opponent, Ariel Sharon of the right-wing Likud Party, who has a strong lead in the polls.
''Mr. Sharon -- when he comes, if he will come, I don't know, this is not our business -- then if he wants to continue, welcome,'' Mr. Qurei said in answer to a question.
In the language and spirit of their vague joint announcement, however, Israeli and Palestinian officials suggested that they were on the verge of a breakthrough on which only this Israeli government could make good.
As such, the Palestinians, who are alarmed at the prospect of Mr. Sharon, appeared to be trying to give Mr. Barak a last-minute hand -- whether helpful or ultimately damaging remains to be seen.
While it was a political gamble for Mr. Barak even to send his peace team to Taba this week, he is 16 to 18 points behind in the polls and did not have much to lose.
After the talks finished, President Bush spoke with Mr. Barak for seven minutes today, and voiced his ''desire to see peace in the region based on a secure Israel,'' said Mary Ellen Countryman, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
With the Americans on the sidelines for a change, European diplomats have been shuttling between the two sides to try to engineer a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. They last came together for cease-fire talks in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, in October, but did not actually talk.
It was a roller-coaster of a week in Taba. In the first two days, both delegations said they had never seen the other side so prepared to discuss detailed ''final status'' arrangements, and so seemingly willing to contemplate fundamental compromises. If it were not for those who existed outside the hotel, some joked, a deal could definitely be reached.
Proposed Palestinian maps ceded major Jewish settlements to Israel. Israeli negotiators were said to be wrestling with language that would for the first time officially acknowledge the suffering -- and the right to compensation -- of Palestinian refugees displaced from what is now Israel.
Both sides were reportedly examining leasing arrangements that would keep Israeli military posts at strategic points in the Jordan Valley.
''The atmosphere at the outset was extremely warm, and extremely serious, with real political will to strike a deal,'' said Miguel Moratinos, the European Union envoy to the Middle East, who monitored the talks closely from Taba.
But even then, Palestinians complained that the Israelis appeared internally divided about their own aims. Were they to seek a framework accord for an inclusive final-status agreement, or simply to pursue technical talks on a range of issues while building toward a statement of intent to continue after the elections? Some Israelis, too, said the mission was unclear.
It became clearer after the West Bank killing of two Israeli civilians on Tuesday. A two-day halt called by Israel broke the talks' momentum. On Thursday, Israeli negotiators returned from meetings with Mr. Barak in Jerusalem with instructions to lower their sights.
Tempers frayed as Palestinians said the Israelis appeared to be toughening previous positions on refugees, security installations and other issues.
''Barak decided that making the concessions Israel would need to make would be suicidal politically,'' a Western diplomat said after speaking to both delegations.
But negotiators were still striving to ensure that any future negotiations would pick up where they had left off. Key Israeli and Palestinian officials were trying to create a detailed, permanent record of the talks' progress -- ''a kind of formal or informal 'deposit,' as was done in negotiations with Syria and elsewhere, for the collective memory of the two societies,'' Mr. Moratinos said.
Although Mr. Sharon has said he intends to disregard what transpired at Taba, Mr. Qurei said tonight, ''The outcomes of the negotiations are binding for both sides, so they can resume from the point that they stopped at today.''
Chatting on the air with a Voice of Palestine radio interviewer during the talks, Saeb Erekat, a longtime Palestinian negotiator, likened the on-again, off-again sessions with the Israelis ''to bargaining in a bazaar.''
In talks held on the Red Sea shore a few years back, he said, Israel was offering to pull out of 66 percent of the West Bank, plus a 14 percent ''partial withdrawal.'' The proposal was increased in more recent discussions in Stockholm to 76 percent and 12 percent, respectively, and then rose to 89 percent in plans put forward by Israel at Camp David last summer, Mr. Erekat said.
But now, he said, the Israelis were accepting the basic geographical parameters of a settlement formula suggested by then-President Clinton, with Israel ceding around 95 percent of the West Bank.
Annexed to Israel, under the plan discussed in Taba, would be three major border-area Jewish settlement blocs centered on Gush Etzion in the south, the Jerusalem suburb of Maale Adumim, and, deepest within Palestinian territory, the town of Ariel in the northern West Bank. Israel would partly compensate by carving off smaller pockets of land from its sovereign territory and ceding those to the Palestinians.
From a Palestinian perspective, the Israelis negotiating in Taba were almost their ideal interlocutors. All have a long personal history of involvement in official and informal discussions with the Palestinians in the last decade. Yossi Beilin, the minister of justice, and Mr. Ben-Ami are perhaps the strongest advocates of a peace settlement in the Labor Party leadership. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the tourism and transportation minister, was deeply involved in previous negotiations as the Israeli army chief of staff. Yossi Sarid, the leader of the leftist Meretz faction, is an outspoken critic of West Bank settlements and a proponent of Palestinian statehood.
''If we had quality political time, we could have definitely reached an agreement,'' Mr. Ben-Ami said.
But the ''peace cabinet,'' as Mr. Barak calls his negotiating team, represents only a minority of Israel's Parliament, and, according to opinion polls, a diminishing share of the public at large.
And running the show, diplomats said, was Gilead Sher, Mr. Barak's strong-willed chief of staff, who consulted constantly with the prime minister by mobile phone. At one point in the negotiations, Mr. Sher coolly informed his Palestinian counterparts that if a proposal was aired when he was out of the room, it should not be considered an official Israeli position.
Nonetheless, the joint Israeli-Palestinian statement concludes: ''We leave Taba in a spirit of hope and mutual achievement acknowledging that the foundations have been laid both in re-establishing mutual confidence and having progressed in a substantive engagement on all core issues.''
By DEBORAH SONTAG and WILLIAM A. ORME Jr. (NYT) 1372 words
JERUSALEM, Jan. 27 -- Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials concluded nearly a week of stop-and-start negotiations in Taba, Egypt, tonight by saying jointly that they have ''never been closer to reaching'' a final peace accord but lacked sufficient time to conclude one before the Israeli elections on Feb. 6.
Both sides also said Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, might meet within days in Stockholm. It would be their first face-to-face conversation since a dinner at Mr. Barak's private home just before the current violence erupted in late September.
At a joint news conference in Taba, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami of Israel called the two-way talks, from which the Americans were conspicuously absent, ''the most fruitful, constructive, profound negotiations in this phase of the peace process.'' He said the two sides hoped to pick up where they left off after the elections -- although his boss, Mr. Barak, is expected to lose.
Less expansively, Ahmed Qurei, a senior Palestinian official, spoke genially of a ''genuine effort'' at ''serious negotiations'' that could help restore trust between the two sides.
He said the Palestinians also hoped to resume the talks after the Israeli elections -- even if it was with Mr. Barak's opponent, Ariel Sharon of the right-wing Likud Party, who has a strong lead in the polls.
''Mr. Sharon -- when he comes, if he will come, I don't know, this is not our business -- then if he wants to continue, welcome,'' Mr. Qurei said in answer to a question.
In the language and spirit of their vague joint announcement, however, Israeli and Palestinian officials suggested that they were on the verge of a breakthrough on which only this Israeli government could make good.
As such, the Palestinians, who are alarmed at the prospect of Mr. Sharon, appeared to be trying to give Mr. Barak a last-minute hand -- whether helpful or ultimately damaging remains to be seen.
While it was a political gamble for Mr. Barak even to send his peace team to Taba this week, he is 16 to 18 points behind in the polls and did not have much to lose.
After the talks finished, President Bush spoke with Mr. Barak for seven minutes today, and voiced his ''desire to see peace in the region based on a secure Israel,'' said Mary Ellen Countryman, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
With the Americans on the sidelines for a change, European diplomats have been shuttling between the two sides to try to engineer a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. They last came together for cease-fire talks in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, in October, but did not actually talk.
It was a roller-coaster of a week in Taba. In the first two days, both delegations said they had never seen the other side so prepared to discuss detailed ''final status'' arrangements, and so seemingly willing to contemplate fundamental compromises. If it were not for those who existed outside the hotel, some joked, a deal could definitely be reached.
Proposed Palestinian maps ceded major Jewish settlements to Israel. Israeli negotiators were said to be wrestling with language that would for the first time officially acknowledge the suffering -- and the right to compensation -- of Palestinian refugees displaced from what is now Israel.
Both sides were reportedly examining leasing arrangements that would keep Israeli military posts at strategic points in the Jordan Valley.
''The atmosphere at the outset was extremely warm, and extremely serious, with real political will to strike a deal,'' said Miguel Moratinos, the European Union envoy to the Middle East, who monitored the talks closely from Taba.
But even then, Palestinians complained that the Israelis appeared internally divided about their own aims. Were they to seek a framework accord for an inclusive final-status agreement, or simply to pursue technical talks on a range of issues while building toward a statement of intent to continue after the elections? Some Israelis, too, said the mission was unclear.
It became clearer after the West Bank killing of two Israeli civilians on Tuesday. A two-day halt called by Israel broke the talks' momentum. On Thursday, Israeli negotiators returned from meetings with Mr. Barak in Jerusalem with instructions to lower their sights.
Tempers frayed as Palestinians said the Israelis appeared to be toughening previous positions on refugees, security installations and other issues.
''Barak decided that making the concessions Israel would need to make would be suicidal politically,'' a Western diplomat said after speaking to both delegations.
But negotiators were still striving to ensure that any future negotiations would pick up where they had left off. Key Israeli and Palestinian officials were trying to create a detailed, permanent record of the talks' progress -- ''a kind of formal or informal 'deposit,' as was done in negotiations with Syria and elsewhere, for the collective memory of the two societies,'' Mr. Moratinos said.
Although Mr. Sharon has said he intends to disregard what transpired at Taba, Mr. Qurei said tonight, ''The outcomes of the negotiations are binding for both sides, so they can resume from the point that they stopped at today.''
Chatting on the air with a Voice of Palestine radio interviewer during the talks, Saeb Erekat, a longtime Palestinian negotiator, likened the on-again, off-again sessions with the Israelis ''to bargaining in a bazaar.''
In talks held on the Red Sea shore a few years back, he said, Israel was offering to pull out of 66 percent of the West Bank, plus a 14 percent ''partial withdrawal.'' The proposal was increased in more recent discussions in Stockholm to 76 percent and 12 percent, respectively, and then rose to 89 percent in plans put forward by Israel at Camp David last summer, Mr. Erekat said.
But now, he said, the Israelis were accepting the basic geographical parameters of a settlement formula suggested by then-President Clinton, with Israel ceding around 95 percent of the West Bank.
Annexed to Israel, under the plan discussed in Taba, would be three major border-area Jewish settlement blocs centered on Gush Etzion in the south, the Jerusalem suburb of Maale Adumim, and, deepest within Palestinian territory, the town of Ariel in the northern West Bank. Israel would partly compensate by carving off smaller pockets of land from its sovereign territory and ceding those to the Palestinians.
From a Palestinian perspective, the Israelis negotiating in Taba were almost their ideal interlocutors. All have a long personal history of involvement in official and informal discussions with the Palestinians in the last decade. Yossi Beilin, the minister of justice, and Mr. Ben-Ami are perhaps the strongest advocates of a peace settlement in the Labor Party leadership. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the tourism and transportation minister, was deeply involved in previous negotiations as the Israeli army chief of staff. Yossi Sarid, the leader of the leftist Meretz faction, is an outspoken critic of West Bank settlements and a proponent of Palestinian statehood.
''If we had quality political time, we could have definitely reached an agreement,'' Mr. Ben-Ami said.
But the ''peace cabinet,'' as Mr. Barak calls his negotiating team, represents only a minority of Israel's Parliament, and, according to opinion polls, a diminishing share of the public at large.
And running the show, diplomats said, was Gilead Sher, Mr. Barak's strong-willed chief of staff, who consulted constantly with the prime minister by mobile phone. At one point in the negotiations, Mr. Sher coolly informed his Palestinian counterparts that if a proposal was aired when he was out of the room, it should not be considered an official Israeli position.
Nonetheless, the joint Israeli-Palestinian statement concludes: ''We leave Taba in a spirit of hope and mutual achievement acknowledging that the foundations have been laid both in re-establishing mutual confidence and having progressed in a substantive engagement on all core issues.''