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Israel, Palestine Agree to US-Mediated Session on Mideast Violence
The White House announced Sunday that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to a US-led, three-party inquiry into the renewed violence in Middle East that has left 29 dead.
In an all-out effort to mediate between Israel and Palestine, US President Bill Clinton spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak late on Saturday and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Sunday to express his concern about the Palestinian-Israeli fighting, US National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
Clinton proposed the meeting and both Arafat and Barak have agreed to it, said Crowley. The officials will gather somewhere in the region as soon as conditions permit, he said.
Crowley said that the United States will chair the meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security officials for the purpose of fact-finding and to prevent a recurrence of the past few days, he added.
Clinton also conveyed his condolences to the family of the victims and called on both sides to "to exert maximum efforts to restore calm immediately," he said.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, White House national security adviser Sandy Berger and US mediator Dennis B. Ross also have had conversations with top-level Israeli and Palestinian officials.
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