Arafat - Barak meet amid tension - mistrust

U.S. President Bill Clinton pressed his diplomatic drive into the early hours, meeting with Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak until past 1 a.m., then meeting with Barak for nearly two hours before heading to his hotel for rest. More meetings were planned later Tuesday morning, and the eventual outcome was uncertain. After meeting with Clinton and Mubarak, Arafat told reporters who asked about an agreement, "Not yet, not yet."

Nabil Abourdeneh, a senior aide to Arafat, said, "We still need a few hours and more American effort to know the result of these talks. Until now, we still don't have an agreement on anything. We'll know tomorrow morning." An Egyptian official, Nabil Osman, said the seven leaders participating in the summit would gather together again later Tuesday morning. The marathon talks, lasting well past 14 hours, prompted Clinton to extend his stay into Tuesday morning, rather than departing on Monday night as planned. Although Israeli officials were downbeat, Jake Siewert, the White House press secretary, characterized the talks as intently focused "on how to change the realities on the ground, so we can begin to build a bridge back to peacemaking." The main hangup was Arafat's insistence for an international fact-finding commission to assess the causes of the violence, an Israeli official said. Israel says it will only accept a panel led by the United States, its closest ally. Siewert acknowledged that tempers flared earlier in the day during a meeting of foreign ministers. "I gather it was a bit heated," he said. "But that's the exception, not the rule here. There may have been some heated rhetoric but none of epithets I've seen reported." Siewert said there were no eruptions in any of Clinton's meetings. "People have been straightforward, focused on solutions and not finger-pointing," Siewert said. As for the timing of Clinton's return to Washington, Siewert said, "We haven't made a plan for after this." Barak, meanwhile, insisted on a halt to Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians and the re-arrest of extremists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements who were released this past week. He has called for the Palestinian media to stop its calls for further attacks against Israel. Clinton implored both sides "to move beyond blame" after more than two weeks of armed clashes on the West Bank and Gaza that have left about 100 people dead, most of them Palestinians. It has been the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since 1993, when the Oslo peace accords launched the now-shattered peace process. Fighting flared anew less than an hour after the summit opened. Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinian gunmen and rock-throwers. A Palestinian police officer and a 15-year-old boy were killed and dozens of civilians were wounded by Israeli fire.

Surrounded by tight security, the leaders met at a two-story golf clubhouse at this Red Sea resort, famous for its coral reefs and scuba diving. They gathered around a horseshoe-shaped table, Arafat and Barak sitting away from other leaders and far apart from each other. There were no smiles or handshakes for the cameras, but officials said the two men did shake hands. Their attitude toward each other was described as chilly. There were flashes of anger in a foreign ministers' meeting on another floor. Gadi Baltiansky, Barak's spokesman, said there were "substantial difficulties" in the foreign ministers' negotiations and that any agreement would have to be decided by the leaders. "The differences are, on the one hand, the insistence by Palestinians that the Israelis take steps on the ground before a full stop to the violence, something Israel objects to; And, on the other hand, the character of a body that would investigate the events has not been agreed upon," Baltiansky said. The summit was hosted by Mubarak, who unmistakably blamed Israel for the violence. `The aggressions to which the Palestinian people were subjected during the last two weeks persuaded me to convene this meeting," Mubarak said. Also participating were King Abdullah of Jordan, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign affairs chief. Asked how the talks were proceeding, Annan cautiously responded: "Reasonably well." At one point, the foreign ministers' meeting erupted in acrimony. Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami told the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, that the international inquiry being sought by Arafat was simply an alibi to prevent progress in the peace process, according to an Israeli official familiar with the talks. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Erekat responded, "You are a real hero, threatening us with guns." U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright persuaded both to continue talking. Clinton refused to take sides. Saying the situation was "piled high with grievance," Clinton said, "we have got to move beyond blame." Urging the parties to be "sober and serious," he set out three goals: To end the violence and restore security cooperation; to agree upon a fact-finding process about what happened "to bring us to this sad point," and to get the peace process going again. In view of the mutual hostility, the most immediate goal was for a truce, although U.S. officials said it will be impossible to rebuild an atmosphere of trust quickly. Both leaders were under intense pressure at home not to appear to make concessions. Arafat attended reluctantly after intense pressure from Clinton and other leaders. After opening statements, the seven participants huddled in a corner of the room and then met around another horseshoe table for lunch in a room with a glass wall overlooking the golf course. Clinton held separate meetings in the afternoon with Barak and then Arafat. Mubarak called for "saving what is left of the credibility of the peace process." Clinton, too, urged both sides to remember how far they have come since 1993. "We shouldn't give it all up for what has happened in the last few weeks," he said. " The violence erupted after a Sept. 28 visit by Israel's hawkish opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, to a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims. Attitudes on both sides have been hardened by images that horrified the world: a terrified 12-year-old Palestinian boy crying in his father's arms before being fatally shot; Israeli soldiers killed by a Palestinian mob that mutilated their bodies.

(sda)