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World - Middle East

Israelis threaten summit walkout

Graphic

U.S.: 'We can't make decisions for them'

October 21, 1998
Web posted at: 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT)

WYE MILLS, Maryland (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to quit the Mideast summit at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday unless the Palestinians revise their security provisions for an interim peace accord.

State Department spokesman James Rubin earlier told reporters that the Clinton administration would present a draft text containing what the two sides have agreed to, and "brackets" where the two sides disagreed.

He said Washington hoped the draft would then lead the two parties further down the negotiation path toward the so-called final status talks, as enshrined in the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

Those accords say that, in those final status talks, Israelis and Palestinians should address such key issues as the future status of Jerusalem and the final borders of what would likely become Palestine.

Rubin said that "significant gaps" still divided the Israeli and Palestinian delegations and he clearly displayed, as Mideast watchers described it, Washington's impatience with the continued impasse in the talks.

"We can't make decisions for them. They have to make the tough decisions," Rubin said.

Rubin said "the intensity of the talks is only increasing" and the United States was prepared to stay at the talks "as long as the other parties are willing to.

Mutual accusations and threats

Netanyahu, Clinton and Arafat
Netanyahu, Clinton and Arafat at the White House before the start of the Wye talks  

Shortly before the United States announced its next move in the talks, an Israeli source close to the talks accused the Palestinians of retreating from agreements and commitments they had made, and warned that the Israeli delegation might leave the summit. However, it was unclear whether that threat was merely a negotiating tactic.

"This is not land for peace. This is land for nothing," said the source, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had begun to prepare for the flight home.

The Palestinians said the Israelis were looking for a way to end the talks without a deal.

Hassan Abdel Rahman, the PLO representative in the United States, said, "Those (Israeli) allegations are baseless. Not true. We have turned over a complete security plan to the Americans. The Americans approved it. We worked together on it. They were happy with it. (U.S.) President (Bill) Clinton himself approved it and was satisfied with it."

"We have gone the extra mile to make the summit a success, but it looks like the Israeli side is stalling, looking for a pretext to end it with failure," he added.

On Tuesday, sources said Clinton and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat had agreed on the complex and comprehensive security proposal but that several members of Netanyahu's Cabinet were still uncomfortable with those arrangements.

In addition to security, three other sticking points seemed to be: Israel's demand for revocation of clauses hostile to Israel in the PLO charter, a formula for a third Israeli troop redeployment on the West Bank and Israel's demand for the arrest or extradition of Palestinian fugitives.

Correspondents Jerrold Kessel, Walter Rodgers and Andrea Koppel contributed to this report.

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