Mideast Peace Talks End Without Agreement"Major gaps still exist," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said, emerging from a half-hour meeting with President Bill Clinton at the White House. He said Clinton gave the two sides "a recap of how he sees things should move." "We would like to see an agreement during President Clinton's presidency," he said. But if the Arab-Israeli conflict remained after Clinton left office, the next president would deal with it as well, he added. Speaking separately in the White House driveway, Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said "inevitably, differences remain, but I feel that it was very encouraging." Both Erekat and Ben-Ami said they would brief their respective leaders in view of possible future meetings. "By Wednesday, they will be in a position to report back to the president on whether or not they see the idea and the concept that were discussed as an appropriate basis for them proceeding with meetings with the president and later on perhaps even a summit," Ben-Ami said. "But it is still too early to confirm," he stressed. The two delegations, which held talks with U.S. mediators at Bolling Air Force Base in southeastern Washington since Tuesday, arrived at the White House shortly before 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) to meet Clinton. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, and John Podesta, the White House chief of Staff, were also present at the meeting, the second of its kind during the week-long talks. After their meeting with Clinton, Erekat and Ben-Ami met again with the U.S. team led by U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross. |
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