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Barak, Clinton Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. President Bill Clinton discussed Wednesday night ways for pushing the Israeli-Palestinian final-status talks forward, Israel Radio reported Thursday.
Barak phoned Clinton and expressed his hope that Clinton would put pressure on the Palestinian leadership to agree to a postponement of the third troop redeployment in the West Bank until after a framework agreement for the final-status arrangement is reached, the radio added.
Barak called Clinton just ahead of his meeting Thursday in Washington with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But Barak's office did not disclose more details about the telephone conversation.
The deadline for the third Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank is June 23. Israel has threatened that if the Palestinian side rejects its demand for the postponement and insists on the withdrawal being carried out on time, it will stick to a previous government's decision that the third withdrawal will include only 1 percent of the West Bank territories.
Under the Oslo accords signed by the two sides in 1993, Israel has to transfer all remaining West Bank territories to Palestinian control during the third redeployment. Israel so far has handed over about 40 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
Barak also wishes Arafat to agree to a summit sponsored by Clinton, in which the leaders can try and complete the framework agreement.
The Palestinians feel that the time is not yet ripe for the summit, and Arafat told U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last week that the third redeployment must be carried out on schedule.
Barak also phoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday and stressed the importance of reaching a framework agreement, Barak's office said.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiating teams resumed their intensive talks near Washington Tuesday and the talks have been divided into two groups dealing with interim and final-status issues respectively.
Reports from Washington said that the interim talks were broken off on Wednesday as the Palestinian side was angered by the Israeli positions on the third redeployment and prisoner release.
"We will not postpone this withdrawal," Palestinian chief negotiator on interim issues Saeb Erekat said, adding that the Palestinian side "will not agree to even a one-minute delay."
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