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Israel, Palestinians will return to talks Monday
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly holds out little hope for the success of talks with Israel starting Monday in Washington.
But an Israeli government official believes progress can be made in the negotiations.
"We will take part in the talks, despite the fact that they have no chance," Arafat was quoted as saying Sunday in the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will pressure Israel to commit to calling a "time-out" in settlement expansion and is reportedly pushing for a commitment on the date and scope of an Israeli troop withdrawal from rural West Bank land.
The Palestinians say they fear that Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy, who is leading the Israeli delegation to Washington, is not authorized to negotiate on the issues of settlements and troop withdrawal.
"He can hold talks all day long, but your Cabinet didn't empower him to do a thing," Arafat told Maariv.
CNN's Jerald Kessel tells that expansion means different things to different people.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shiran said Levy was "empowered by the Cabinet to talk about all the issues on the agenda" including a time-out and West Bank troop withdrawal.
Reliable Israeli reports say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to offer a temporary cutback on some settlement construction if the Palestinians forgo their outstanding demand to win control over more West Bank land at this stage.
Israeli government spokesman Moshe Fogel said Israel is looking for "practical progress" in areas such as the opening of a Palestinian airport and seaport in the Gaza Strip, called for in the existing Israel-Palestinian agreements.
"We're very close to making progress on some of the issues," Fogel said.
Meanwhile, Arafat adviser Ahmed Tibi said the Palestinians will focus on settlement activity and the Israeli redeployment and that all other issues are secondary.
Palestinians fear Israel will deflect talks onto lesser issues.
"They reduced the points on the agenda to non-significant points and aspects, and they reduced the expectations in order to give the impression that any result from such a meeting is an achievement," said Ghassan Khattib, a Palestinian political analyst.
Existing peace accords call for Israel to make three withdrawals by mid-1998 from parts of the West Bank it still occupies.
The Palestinians rejected Israel's first proposed withdrawal in March as too small because it would have put only 2 percent of Israeli-controlled land into Palestinian hands. Israel put any further withdrawals on hold after two suicide bombings in Jerusalem.
Fogel said Israel won't go forward with redeployment until the Palestinians do more to satisfy Israel's security demands.
"We have lingering suspicions that they're not really committed to fighting terror," he said.
Correspondent Jerrold Kessel and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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