Barak Leaving Camp David, Summit Seems to Fail: Israeli SourcesIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is leaving Camp David in the United States and the summit with the Palestinians there for reaching a peace deal seemed to fail, Barak's One Israel coalition whip Ophir Pines-Paz confirmed Wednesday."Unfortunately, that's all the information I have for the moment," Pines-Paz told Israel Radio. He said he did not believe Barak's leaving is a negotiation maneuver, adding that according to his sources, the American sponsors shared with Barak the judgement that the Palestinians adopted too tough stands in the talks. If Barak comes back, it will indicate the break-off of the summit, which began eight days before at Camp David aiming to resolve all the core issues between the two sides, such as the fate of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements, border, security and water. Earlier Wednesday, US President Bill Clinton, the summit's organizer, announced that he will postpone his planned departure for the G-8 industrialized states summit in Japan from Wednesday to Thursday morning. However, it seemed that Barak even didn't want to use the extra 24 hours President Clinton had allocated to the summit, according to Israel Radio reports. The Radio quoted a "senior source" close to the talks as saying that Barak had reached the conclusion that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is just not acting as "a true peace partner." Now it appears that the summit has failed, the source said. Israel had warned the Palestinians not to take unilateral actions, such as declaring a independent state and deteriorating security situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |