Arafat, Sharon agree to hold talks

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA, AUG. 21. Israel and the Palestinians have both agreed, albeit tentatively on the part of the former, to hold talks aimed at the drawing up of a cease-fire agreement.

The Palestinian Authority President, Mr. Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon, gave their assent to such a meeting in separate discussions with the German Foreign Minister, Mr. Joschka Fischer, today. The breakthrough occurred through the finessing of the quite distinct positions taken by the two sides.

These talks, planned to be held soon either in Berlin or one of the regional capitals (Cairo is a possibility), will be about the ways and means of reaching a cease-fire agreement. In the very fact of giving his assent to any talks at all, Mr. Sharon has moved from his position that Israel will hold talks only after the Palestinian Authority had implemented an earlier cease-fire agreement.

At the same time, Mr. Arafat has also moved from his position that talks should be held immediately on the substantive issues in contention between the two sides even if the cease-fire was not turning out to be free of violations. Both the key phrases - ``talks'' and ``cease-fire'' - have been brought together to give Israel and the Palestinian Authority a ladder that they could use to climb down from their rigid positions.

While Mr. Fischer was the person who actually got both leaders to go public and announce their assent to the talks, the initiative for a ``talk towards a cease fire'' was taken by Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr. Shimon Peres. Mr. Peres, who will be Mr. Arafat's interlocutor if the talks are held, has been pressing his Prime Minister and the rest of the Cabinet to understand that they did need to offer some sort of initiative to the Palestinians and that Israel could expect no progress if it stood by its position that any kind of talks would only begin once and if the Palestinians stopped all violence.

Mr. Peres has been talking broadly of a phased cease- fire plan whereby peace would be restored area by area. Since the forms of violence in each segment of the Palestinian territory have been different, there would be different modes of implementing a cease-fire in each of them. Several other plans have been floated by Israeli politicians.

Talking to the press after his meeting with Mr. Arafat, Mr. Fischer said that his offices were always open to the Israelis and the Palestinians if they wanted to hold talks either directly or through intermediaries. But he also hinted that there were other places much closer, a possible allusion to Cairo since Egypt has also reactivated itself in the search for regional peace.

In any event, this development has some significance to international politics as it is played out in West Asia. Today's breakthrough, however tentative, has been achieved without U.S. efforts and indeed through the services of the European Union - a body that Israel has not been very keen about drawing into regional politics.

The million dollar question is whether today's tentative consensus will amount to anything. A bomb went off in the heart of Jerusalem, fortunately causing no casualties, even as Mr. Fischer was talking to Mr. Sharon.

If there is a major militant strike by the Palestinians, of if there is a major Israeli military action with the potential to invite retaliatory strikes, this tentative effort might collapse.

In a way, the whole situation has been left in the hands of would-be suicide bombers. On the other hand, the two sides have battered each other so much over the past 11 months that they might just be prepared to seek any way to get out of the situation.

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Section  : International
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