Clinton-Mideast summit date set

JERUSALEM - Palestinian and Israeli leaders agreed yesterday to a meet with US President Bill Clinton in Egypt tomorrow to try to halt an orgy of violence that has shattered Middle East peacemaking.

Clinton hailed plans for the summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after 17 days of clashes in which 99 people have died, all but seven of them Arabs.

"Now, we should be under no illusions. The good news is the parties have agreed to meet and the situation appears to be calmer," a weary-looking Clinton said in Washington.

"But the path ahead is difficult. After the terrible events of the past few days, the situation is still quite tense."

He said the job now was to stop the violence, agree on a "fact-finding mechanism" to investigate what caused the unrest and find a way to get peace negotiations back on track.

On Thursday, a suspected suicide bomb attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden killed 17 sailors. The next day a blast rocked the British embassy in Yemen's capital Sanaa.

International efforts to arrange a summit reached fever pitch after Palestinians lynched two Israeli soldiers on Thursday and Israel retaliated with helicopter missile strikes.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has shuttled between Barak and Arafat since Monday in close contact with Clinton, announced that the leaders would meet without preconditions.

Acting Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said on Friday Barak did not want another "fiasco" similar to his meeting with Arafat and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Paris on October 4. He and Arafat failed to reach a comprehensive peace agreement at a U.S.-hosted summit in July.

Palestinians staged scattered protests in the West Bank yesterday. Hospital sources said 17 people had been wounded by rubber bullets fired by Israeli soldiers in Arrabeh village near Jenin. Rubber bullets hit four people in the divided city of Hebron, where a protester died of his wounds overnight.

The Israeli army said in a statement yesterday that clashes continued throughout the day and that one soldier was hurt by Palestinian stone-throwers in Hebron.

Israeli government spokesman Nachman Shai said Barak agreed to go to the summit after U.N. officials told him Arafat was prepared to attend without preconditions.

But Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah said the Palestinian leader agreed to the meeting "to give the peace process another chance" after Annan told him his terms had been met.

Diplomats said Arafat had sought a pullback of Israeli tanks, the reopening of Palestinian territories and an international commission to probe the causes of the violence.

Shai said he knew of no agreement to pull back tanks from the West Bank and said Israel remained "absolutely against" an international inquiry. "We only accept a fact-finding mission."

The Israeli spokesman said clashes must end. "It's time to stop the fireworks and to start talking," he added.

The U.N. chief left for Sharm el-Sheikh to meet Mubarak, the summit host, after confirming Arafat and Barak would attend.

Annan said a minimum objective would be a ceasefire before and during the summit, leading to a permanent truce, so that negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could resume.

Asked if that was possible, given the rampant animosity that has surfaced in the past two weeks, he said: "We shall find out.

"I think...you make peace not with friends but with enemies. Sooner or later you have to talk," Annan said.

Shai said the summit's only purpose was to halt the violence, not to talk peace. "There is no room from the Israeli point of view for any diplomatic negotiation in the upcoming summit. This negotiation will take place in the future when there is no violence," he said.

The Israelis accuse Arafat of failing to order an end to Palestinian stone-throwing and gun attacks. Palestinians accuse the Israeli army of using lethal force against civilians.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath told Reuters Arafat was going to Sharm el- Sheikh with two aims: "First to end all forms of Israeli hostilities against our people, and second, to form the international investigation committee.

"If we get these things, we turn to finding the mechanisms and basis for a peace process that would be more serious."

Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon, whose September 28 visit to a Jerusalem shrine sparked the wave of unrest, welcomed the summit if it stopped the bloodshed, but voiced reservations about any attempt to restart peace talks.

"We all know how the current peace process led us to the difficult situation we are in," the Likud party leader said.

Barak has invited the hawkish ex-general to join a "national emergency government". Sharon, who has not responded, was to meet the prime minister later on Saturday, army radio said.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the militant Islamic Hamas movement, attacked plans for the summit.

"I urge President Yasser Arafat to boycott the meeting and not to surrender to the Israeli and American demands and not to bypass the Israeli crimes," he told Reuters.

Radical Palestinian guerrilla groups based in Damascus also urged Arafat to reconsider his decision to attend.

Iraq, a bitter U.S. foe, denounced the summit as "an attempt to kill the Palestinian uprising".

- REUTERS

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