Israel gives peace more time as ultimatum passes

2:00 PM

Israel said on Tuesday it was inclined to give international mediators more time to try to end a cycle of Israeli-Palestinian violence and revive the Middle East peace process.

A statement issued by Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office after the expiration of the 48 hours he had given Palestinians to stop clashes indicated he would be willing to extend the deadline.

"The government's inclination in light of several requests from world leaders is to grant a number of additional days in order to exhaust the possibility of ending the violence with the feeling that this is, indeed, the last chance," it said.

Prospects for an end to the bloodshed had dimmed after a U.S. official said President Clinton failed to win agreement for a Middle East summit in a round of telephone calls with Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders.

"No one has said no," the official said in Washington.

But the official said currently there was no indication that such a meeting would be productive.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan held crisis talks in Israel and then with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to try to avert an escalation in a crisis that has claimed the lives of at least 89 people, mainly Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.

Israeli soldiers and Palestinians clashed on Monday in several towns across the West Bank, including Hebron - where helicopter gunships went into action - and in Ramallah and Nablus.

At least 14 people were hurt, witnesses said.

Each side accused the other of firing live rounds on the 12th day of clashes that have left peacemaking in tatters.

Israel's acting foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, said there were no signs that the Palestinians had met Barak's ultimatum on Saturday to end clashes within 48 hours or see the collapse of the peace process.

"Therefore I don't see any room at the moment for a change in the Israeli position," Ben-Ami said.

Just before going into the cabinet meeting on Monday, Barak said on Israeli Television the ministers would discuss "the response and actions" Israel would now be obliged to take.

But in an interview with the U.S. television network ABC's Nightline program, Barak appeared to suggest he would give diplomats more time to try to calm tensions.

"Another day or two will not change it if there is an international effort to put an end to the conflict, or this violence, and come back to negotiating table," he said.

"But if not, we are determined, with the same kind of tenacity that we pushed for peace, to make sure that Israel will live up to its commitments to its citizens and its soldiers, to defend them with all means we have."

Annan, spearheading a diplomatic push to quell the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, held talks with Arafat in Gaza after meeting Ben-Ami in Tel Aviv. Annan and Barak were due to meet on Tuesday.

"Time is short and the stakes are high and the price of failure is more than any of us wants to pay," Annan told a news conference after meeting Arafat.

Arafat said he and Annan "looked at the entire situation'' and would meet again on Tuesday.

"We had an important call from President Clinton," Arafat said, without elaborating.

Violence raged late on Monday in the Israeli Arab town of Umm el-Fahm and in Nazareth, where two Israeli Arabs were killed in clashes with Israeli Jewish crowds during the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

Several Arab-owned homes were torched in Tel Aviv and hundreds of anti-Arab protesters took to the streets in nearby Jaffa and Bat Yam as Israel's national mood darkened.

On the Israel-Lebanon frontier, Israeli and Lebanese soldiers were on alert after pro-Iranian Hizbollah guerrillas seized three Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on Saturday.

The Israeli army said on Monday bloodstains found at the scene showed the soldiers had been wounded in the incident.

Barak has threatened that security forces would use all means to restore order if violence did not end by the end of Yom Kippur on Monday.

After holding consultations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Arafat said the situation was "dangerous" but gave no sign of bowing to Barak's ultimatum.

"I'm afraid tonight to have a list of (Israeli) orders: closure of the West Bank, closure of the towns, prevention of workers, prevention of movement. I think it will escalate," said Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Palestinians say Israel is to blame for the bloodshed and demand an international inquiry.

The clashes began after Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon visited a bitterly contested Jerusalem shrine on September 28 that is holy to Muslims and Jews.

Russia joined the effort to bring calm, sending its foreign minister, Igor Ivanov to Syria, Lebanon and Israel to meet government leaders. He was to see Ben-Ami on Tuesday.

Tensions have been high with Syria and Lebanon since the three soldiers were captured and Hizbollah rained mortar bombs across the border on Saturday.

It was the most serious violence on the Israeli-Lebanese frontier since Israel pulled its army out of Lebanon in May, ending 22 years of occupation.

Diplomatic efforts are under way to resolve the soldiers' fate. Hizbollah wants to exchange them for scores of Lebanese and Arab prisoners in Israeli detention.

Barak said he would hold Syria, Lebanon's political master, responsible for the soldiers' well-being, and vowed to be ready to take decisive action to ensure their safety.

- REUTERS