Clinton hopes for another round on West Asia

Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JULY 26. With the latest round of the West Asia peace talks having ended without result, the Clinton administration is now looking to another round of talks that will hopefully usher in a permanent accord between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The 15-day talks ended at Camp David on Tuesday leaving the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton disappointed but optimistic.

Mr. Clinton ended the current round of talks after coming to the conclusion that a deal was impossible. The two sides came up with the usual statements. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Barak blamed the Palestinians for the outcome and warned that the region was now being thrust into a period of ``considerable uncertainty''. The Palestinians, for their part, blamed Israel for the breakdown.

The joint statement saw both Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat pledging to avoid violence and unilateral actions and to keep working toward a settlement. The part about not taking unilateral actions is critical as Mr. Arafat has threatened to declare a Palestinian State by his September 13 deadline. But as the two leaders returned home, no firm date was set for the resumption of talks. In spite of the collapse - the result of firm stands on the status of Jerusalem - both sides are believed to have made considerable progress towards resolving their 52-year conflict. For the first time, the two sides, with valuable inputs from the U.S., addressed not just the status of Jerusalem but the borders of a Palestinian State and the fate of the millions of refugees. ``... The issues had been kind of taboo before,'' remarked the Secretary of State, Ms. Madeleine Albright.

But both Mr. Arafat and Mr. Barak stuck to their positions on Jerusalem, that the city must be their capital. The Palestinian leader is said to have rejected the final Israeli proposal, which was backed by the U.S., that would have given the Palestinians ``custodial sovereignty'' over some of the blocks leading up to Jerusalem with the Jewish State maintaining ``residual sovereignty'' over all of the sites. The Palestinian leader reportedly rejected the proposal, saying it was nothing more than a ``symbolic'' sovereignty when the crux issue was that of ``full'' sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem with the exception of the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall.

Both Mr. Arafat and Mr. Barak are under severe domestic compulsions and it remains to be seen how they will win over critics.

AFP reports from Jerusalem:

Israel and the Palestinians moved today to keep a lid on a feared explosion of popular violence in the region after the collapse of the Camp David peace summit. Both sides have put their security services on alert.

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Section  : International
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