Clinton Warns of Violence If Summit Fails

U.S. President Bill Clinton has warned that the Middle East will face more hostility or even violence if the upcoming three-way summit at Camp David, Maryland, ends as a complete failure.

"If the parties do not seize this moment to make more progress, there will be more hostility and more bitterness -- perhaps even more violence," Clinton wrote in a column to be published by Newsweek magazine Monday.

"Delay is no longer an option: the parties themselves have set a September deadline for resolving the final issues dividing them.

Moreover, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict knows no status quo. It can move forward toward peace, or can slide back into turmoil. It will not stand still," the president wrote.

He urged Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to seize the chance to resolve the most complex and sensitive issues for a final peace settlement.

Clinton wrote the column on the even of the upcoming Camp David summit with Barak and Arafat, which is aimed at breaking the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian final status talks.



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