Diplomatic Efforts Intensify to End Israel-Palestinian ConflictInternational diplomatic efforts have been intensified to try to bring an end to the two-week-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Senior Israeli officials said Tuesday night that as part of frenetic diplomatic efforts on the part of the United States, President Bill Clinton has offered to fly to the region to hold a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The officials said they reacted positively to reports that Clinton is likely to come to the region as early as Thursday and the U.S. idea is for Clinton to first hold separate meeting with Barak and Arafat, to be followed by a tripartite summit. Clinton's visit would come in place of a regional summit the U.S. has been trying to organize over the last few days in Egypt, and if possible, Clinton would further try to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Besides Clinton's planned visit, a stream of foreign diplomats continued to arrive to the region, among them British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who is expected here on Wednesday. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov as well European Union's Foreign and Security Policy Chief Javier Solana are in the region to offer their help. Annan plans to remain in the region for two more days. Before Clinton's visit to the region, both Barak and Arafat reportedly held phone conversations separately with Clinton Tuesday night. Barak made it clear that in order for a summit to be held, three conditions have to be met: an end to the violence; the signing of a security agreement which was formulated last week in Paris; and renewal of negotiations for a final-status accord. A week ago Arafat refused to sign the security agreement in Paris during talks with Barak and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright due to disputes over the composition of a fact-finding commission to probe into the bloody clashes. According to the senior Israeli officials, Barak asked to renew the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks based on the "ideas put forward by Clinton" which suggested in detail how to solve the problem of the Jerusalem issue. But the prime minister still has some objections to Arafat's demand for an international fact-finding commission to look into the events of the last two weeks. Barak said the commission would include representatives of the Palestinian National Authority, Israel, the United States and Norway, while Arafat has been insisting on the inclusion of France and Egypt as well. Both leaders agreed that the commission would include Russian representatives. The intensity of the violence, triggered by Israel's right-wing opposition Likud party leader Ariel Sharon's visit to an Islamic holy site in East Jerusalem on September 28, has markedly eased in the territories. |
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