Talks collapsed over Jerusalem

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JULY 25. After 15 days of talks, the Camp David process has collapsed. Both the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Barak, and the Palestinian leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat, were scheduled to leave the United States later on Tuesday. The U.S. President, Mr.Bill Clinton, announcing the breakdown, said that even though there was significant progress the two sides were not able to reach an agreement ``this time''.

Mr. Clinton has said that the peace talks would resume in the next two to three weeks and the expectation is that a U.S. negotiator would be heading the way of West Asia soon. The President argued that the two sides had agreed not to take any measures that would jeopardise the process; and at the same time said that unless concessions were made, there can be no peace agreement.

Media reports have it that the talks collapsed on a number of issues, especially the one pertaining to the status of Jerusalem. Israel, according to one report, adamantly refused to cede sovereignty to the Palestinians, going no further than offering access to the Al Aqua mosque. Palestinians have been insisting on sovereignty over all of the city.

The decision to break off the talks was apparently taken in the early hours of Tuesday after the U.S. President realised the futility of continuing the talks. Mr. Clinton apparently came to that conclusion after studying the Israeli stand on the status of Jerusalem.

On Monday the White House indicated that the Israelis and the Palestinians could be making ``some'' progress towards the resolution of their long-standing and bitter dispute. ``They are trying to find areas of agreement. They have probably found some,'' the spokesman, Mr. Joe Lockhart, said.

After going through with an all-night session on Sunday, the President, Mr. Bill Clinton, returned to Camp David on Monday evening quite prepared for a repeat performance of a marathon session with Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat. Mr. Clinton had a meeting with the Palestinian leader on Monday evening and is said to have spent most of his time with negotiators from both sides.

Against the backdrop of a news blackout, very little had been said for the record, that is on substantive issues. But the general feeling has been that both the Israelis and the Palestinians have been hanging tough on the issue of the status of Jerusalem. This had all along been seen as the major sticking point between the two sides. Also, the negotiators are haggling over the precise borders of a Palestinian state and the fate of millions of refugees.

Mr. Barak was being constantly reminded by the right wing back home that he should reject any deal that would entail the sharing of sovereignty over Jerusalem. ``What we hear from most of the reports coming out of Camp David does not answer our hopes,'' the former Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, has said. Mr. Netanyahu has also been quoted as saying that he wanted to prevent a ``ripping apart'' of the Israeli society which in his view could happen in the next few days.

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