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Barak to Decide on Summit After Phone Talks with Mubarak
Israeli Caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak will decide on whether to attend a three-way summit with Palestinian and Egyptian leaders after phone talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Thursday morning.
David Baker, Foreign Press Coordinator in Barak's office, told Xinhua early Thursday that it was too early to say that the summit, which was set to take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, has been cancelled.
Barak and Mubarak will evaluate the situation after Egypt had announced that the summit has been cancelled and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will go to Cairo instead to consult with Mubarak on the American proposals for a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, Baker added.
Meanwhile, Israeli cabinet secretary Yitzhak Herzog reportedly said that the three sides may not cancel the summit, but postpone it.
The three leaders were originally prepared to discuss the proposals, which were presented by U.S. President Bill Clinton to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington last week.
The suggestions address all the key issues between the two sides, including the fate of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, border and Jewish settlements.
Baker told Xinhua that the marathon session of Barak's security cabinet, which began on 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) Wednesday night, had finished early Thursday.
A press release at the end of the meeting said that Israel " consider these ideas to be a basis for discussion, providing that they will stay as they are, a basis for discussion acceptable to the Palestinians."
Meanwhile, the release added, "Israel will request a number of clarifications concerning matters of essential interest to Israel."
Baker said that Israel "thanks President Clinton for his important contribution during his entire tenure, and at the present time, for his advancing the peace process in the Middle East and the future of the peoples of the region."
"The ideas of President Clinton constitute a contribution to the intensive renewal of the negotiations toward a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians," he added.
The press release meant that the security cabinet, which is expected to draw up a final response to the American bridging proposals, had accepted them conditionally.
On Wednesday night, the Palestinians reportedly sent a letter to Clinton to express their reservations about the proposals and asked for more clarifications from the American side.
The response apparently stunned the Israeli government, who assumed that the Palestinians will accept the suggestions as the base for further negotiations and had sent out test balloons that Israel will accept the proposals "in principle."
The significant gaps on the proposals, analysts pointed out, may be the reason behind the abortion of the Sharm el Sheikh summit, which was widely regarded as a very important step to renew efforts for the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the wake of bloody violence between the two sides had claimed nearly 350, mostly Palestinians, and wounded 10,000 more in the past three months.
The Clinton administration had set the end of the week as the deadline for both sides to make their final responses to the American proposals.
If both sides agree on the compromise plan, Clinton will invite Barak and Arafat to join him in Washington for a three-way summit for reaching a final peace deal before the U.S. president leaves his office on January 10.
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