Baker, Arens Unable to Agree on Mideast Talks

Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens were unable today to agree on arrangements for an opening round of Mideast negotiations.

Both, however, described their 90-minute State Department meeting as constructive. “It was a very constructive and hopefully a very productive meeting,” Baker said.

The statement hints at the possibility of a breakthrough after Arens returns to Jerusalem and his report is evaluated by the Israeli government.

But when Baker was asked if he had been able to set up a three-way meeting with Arens and Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel Meguid--the first step in a drawn-out U.S. plan for negotiations--he replied:

“No, we have not agreed today on the timetable for a trilateral meeting.”

Arens, standing with Baker in a State Department lobby, said, “We had a good and constructive conversation.”

Baker told the Israeli official about his talks in Moscow with Soviet officials and the two key issues of interest to Jerusalem: rising anti-Semitism and Soviet unwillingness to implement an agreement for direct Aeroflot flights to Tel Aviv with Soviet Jewish refugees.

Arens said he thanked Baker for his efforts.

The meeting was held against a backdrop of U.S. impatience and mounting political pressure in Israel for concessions.

Despite it all, however, Arens is unlikely to reach agreement with Baker on the composition of a Palestinian delegation for talks with Israel in Cairo or on an agenda for the session.

Those kinds of decisions are made in Jerusalem by the Cabinet. At most, Arens was giving Baker an explanation of his government’s position on the unsettled issues and receiving from Baker an account of the latest positions of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of Egypt.

Israel’s majority Likud Party, of which Arens is a senior member, is under pressure from the minority Labor Party to accept Labor’s formula for starting the talks or to face dissolution of the coalition government in Jerusalem.

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, meanwhile, said in a letter released by peace activists in the Israeli capital today that he has approved the composition of a Palestinian delegation that would include delegates from the West Bank and Gaza.

Baker has tried for months to arrange a three-way session here with Arens and Egypt’s Meguid.