Arafat, Barak head again to Washington

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat head to Washington this week for separate post-United States election talks with President Bill Clinton on chances for peace after five weeks of killing.

The White House said Clinton would meet Arafat on Friday, two days after the US presidential election, and Barak next Monday.

Clinton last saw the two leaders in mid-October at an emergency Middle East summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where a deal to end the violence failed to take hold.

"The goal is to assess the situation on the ground and begin to find the way back to the negotiating table," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said.

The US initiative was announced against the backdrop of Israeli statements acknowledging that Arafat had ordered Palestinians to stop shooting following a truce brokered on Friday by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

"But as things stand now, this order has had only partial effect - not the full effect which we expect," Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said yesterday, after the Army reported at least four incidents in which troops came under fire.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, an Arafat aide, said the White House talks would focus on the peace process and a "discussion of the continuation of Israeli attacks on Palestinians."

Palestinians have demanded international protection, understood to mean a United Nations force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the US is cool to the idea.

Barak's office, commenting on an Israel Television report that Washington had sounded out Israel on an international force, said: "We know nothing of a US appeal ... and if such an idea is raised, we will strongly oppose it."

Although the intensity and frequency of clashes have dropped, violence continues to flare in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with deadly effect. Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in unrest yesterday that ended a two-day lull in fatalities and gave added urgency to Clinton's mediation efforts.

Israeli Army chief Shaul Mofaz told a news conference the military had plans for "different and stronger levels of response" to Palestinian violence.

"But at this stage the security cabinet's decision is to make every effort to bring about calm in the hope of continuing along the path of negotiation," said Mofaz.

The question on the minds of many Israelis and Palestinians was whether Clinton would be able to set both sides back on a peacemaking course in the short time remaining before handing over to his successor on January 20.

He failed at a summit in Camp David, Maryland, in July to bridge differences on key issues such as the future of Jerusalem and of Jewish settlements on land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

In Paris, Peres said that in order to speed up the peace process, Israelis and Palestinians should begin implementing all points they have agreed on so far.

"The current tragedy is that the disagreements are extremely small," he said. "We are very close to a complete agreement."

-REUTERS

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