Rabin to Meet With Mubarak on Peace Plan

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin will meet here today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in an unusual high-level dialogue sparked by Egypt’s proposals for peace in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Rabin’s one-day visit--closely following two recent trips by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat--is part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Cairo stemming from Mubarak’s 10-point plan for Palestinian elections and his offer to sponsor direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis in Egypt.

Hints of Progress

For days, diplomats and government officials close to the Middle East peace process have hinted that closed-door meetings going on here could produce measurable progress in a process that had essentially stagnated in recent months over disputes on how to conduct elections to select a Palestinian delegation from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and preconditions for final peace talks.

Swedish Foreign Minister Sten Sture Andersson, concluding two days of meetings in Cairo with Mubarak and Arafat on Sunday, told reporters that the dialogue was “much more fruitful than two weeks ago,” but he refused to elaborate.

“It’s time now for silent, quiet diplomacy,” Andersson said.

Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported that Mubarak has offered to sponsor direct talks in Cairo between Israelis and a delegation of Palestinians. And there were additional reports that Egypt has, as one option, suggested bypassing the controversial issue of elections and appointing a Palestinian delegation from both inside and outside the occupied territories, or at least holding direct preliminary talks to work out the details of an election.

The Egyptian news agency also reported that four prominent Palestinians from the occupied territories, including two who might serve on such a delegation, are also in Cairo for meetings this week.

Rabin’s visit comes at a time when the Israeli government remains deeply divided over Mubarak’s 10-point peace plan, which was proposed earlier this month. It originally was a set of 10 questions and comments relating to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s plan for elections in the occupied territories.

Likud Opposed to Plan

Shamir and his hard-line Likud Party have opposed Mubarak’s proposals, especially provisions endorsing the concept of exchanging land for peace, a freeze on new Jewish settlements in the territories, international supervision of elections and allowing Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem to vote and run for office.

Rabin and fellow Labor Party leader Shimon Peres, however, have said Mubarak’s proposals provide a chance for finally resolving the Palestinian conflict.

Egyptian officials did not say what the purpose of today’s meetings would be, but in an interview Sunday with Israel Army Radio, Egypt’s ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Bassiouny, said that Egypt “is talking with all the ministers of Israel . . . because to solve the problem, you ought to talk with everybody.”

The PLO, meanwhile, has not officially responded to the Egyptian proposals, but there were unofficial reports that Arafat was not pleased. Individual PLO officials have complained, for example, that the proposals contain no provision for Israel’s withdrawing from the occupied territories and mirror too closely Israel’s original election plans.

Tenuous Consensus

One PLO official said that Arafat had been urged not to make any public statement critical of Mubarak’s proposals as part of the general effort to reach some tenuous consensus before the U.N. General Assembly begins its annual sessions on Tuesday.

A Western analyst close to the peace negotiations said that Mubarak’s proposals are viewed not so much as a peace initiative as they have been described in the press, as something concrete on which to build a dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

“They have no meaning themselves,” he said. “They are important if they serve as a catalyst to bring Palestinians into a room with Israelis.”