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Barak Suggests End of Peace Process at Current Format
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that in his sense, the political process with the Palestinians at the current format had "reached the end of the path," Israel Radio reported.
Speaking at Sunday morning's weekly cabinet meeting, Barak stressed that he believes Israel and the Palestinians could reach a peace agreement sooner or later, according to the report.
However, the current Israeli leadership encounters great difficulties in reaching any decisions on such an agreement to take place because of the recent violence, the prime minister added.
The cabinet meeting was convened to discuss the scheduled summit on Monday between Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the wake of the bloody confrontations between the two sides in the past 18 days, which had claimed more than 100 lives, most of them Palestinians.
Barak stated that the summit, which will take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh with the participation of U.S. President Bill Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will only try to stop the cycle of violence and to find the mechanism to make sure that the clashes will not restart again.
Thus, Barak suggested, the issue of resuming final-status peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will not be placed on the agenda of the summit.
The peace talks had been deadlocked since last July's Camp David summit between Barak, Arafat and Clinton failed to reach any agreement due to significant gaps between the two sides over the sovereignty of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.
The two-week-long violence further dampened the hope that the two sides could reach a final peace deal in the near future.
According to Israel's Ha'aretz daily, Israel had listed several demands for Monday's summit:
- The signing of the security understandings reached by Barak and Arafat in Paris 10 days ago;
- An end to the incitement against Israel;
- A Joint declaration calling for an end to violence and the use of violence, with U.S. and Egyptian guarantees;
- A commitment from the Palestinians to arrest all Islamic radicals recently released from prisons;
- A postponement of the Arab League conference, scheduled for next Saturday, or a softening of its conclusions.
In a related development, Ariel Sharon, leader of the right-wing opposition party Likud, threatened on Sunday that if the prime minister makes the slightest move in the Sharm el Sheikh summit to advance the peace process, his party will take actions to topple the government.
Barak had met with Sharon Saturday night to discuss the possibility of forming a broad-based government with the Likud and other opposition parties to restore the majority in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament), which Barak now only controls one-third seats.
However, pro-peace politicians had warned Barak of such a coalition, especially because the provocative visit by Sharon to a disputed shrine in the Old City of Jerusalem on September 28 was widely regarded as the fuse triggering the cycle of violence.
Thus, a coalition with Sharon, the politicians cautioned, will further damage the mutual trust between Israelis and Arabs and push the peace target far away.
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