Israel Accepts U.S. Call for Three-Way Peace Talks

On the eve of the Palestinian uprising’s second anniversary, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir accepted a U.S. call for talks by Egyptian, American and Israeli officials as a step toward peace, a spokesman said Thursday.

Shamir called a meeting today of the four top Cabinet ministers to approve sending Foreign Minister Moshe Arens to the talks, Israel TV reported.

The “forum of four” includes Shamir and Arens of the right-wing Likud Party and two left-leaning Labor Party members, Finance Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The moves came as the Israeli army clamped an indefinite curfew on 750,000 Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip to block protests linked to today’s anniversary.

In Jerusalem, Shamir spokesman Yossi Ahimeir gave the prime minister’s response to the proposed meeting in Washington after U.S. officials announced that Egypt had agreed to the meeting.

“If the Americans believe it is a full response and want to see where we go from here, we’ll go in January to the meeting of the three foreign ministers,” Ahimeir said.

U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III urged the three-way meeting to pave the way for Israeli-Palestinian talks in Cairo on Israel’s initiative for elections in the West Bank and Gaza.

Ahimeir said that Israel still had not seen the full text of Egypt’s reply and hoped that the Washington meeting could answer questions about Cairo’s stance.

“It will be important to determine what Egypt’s intentions are, and the ability to advance the peace initiative as Israel has proposed, to hold elections,” he said.