Carter Talks to Arafat, Draws Israeli Rebuke

In an effort to stimulate the stalled Middle East peace process, former President Jimmy Carter and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat met here Wednesday with French President Francois Mitterrand at the Elysee Palace.

The meeting, Carter’s first with Arafat, was roundly criticized by Israel, which opposes talks with the PLO, and by Jewish groups in France and the United States. In Washington, the State Department sought to distance itself from the meeting.

After the Elysee Palace meeting, Carter went to a Paris hotel to meet again with Arafat, without Mitterrand.

Talking to reporters afterward, Carter praised Arafat as “one of those key leaders who’s done everything he can in recent months to promote the peace process,” wire services reported.

Carter was widely believed to be acting as an unofficial U.S. emissary. However, in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said he was not acting as an emissary for Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

“He is there as a private citizen, and he is not carrying any messages,” Tutwiler said.

When asked Wednesday by reporters if President Bush was supporting his initiative, Carter replied: “No, I’m here merely as a private citizen. I’m just a college professor.”

However, Carter conferred last month with Baker and Bush about the Middle East peace process, and there is little doubt that Carter’s intention to meet Arafat was discussed.

In a brief statement immediately after the Elysee Palace meeting, Carter said: “Peace is inevitable. The problem is among leaders who don’t adequately represent the yearnings of their people (for peace), in Israel, among the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Jordanians, the Lebanese.” Describing the purpose of the meeting, the former President said, “This is a process that needs to be stimulated by Europe and the United States.”

In a press conference later at his hotel, Arafat described the three-way meeting as “important” and “historic.”

Israel reacted to the meeting with alarm. Government officials said they had not been informed of the Paris talks either by Carter or by the Bush Administration.

“Anything that gives credit to Arafat only strengthens his belief that he can go on with an extremist attitude,” said Yosef Amihud, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said in Jerusalem.

Amihud pointed out that just days ago, Arafat visited Iraq and commended the buildup of missiles by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. They could be used, Arafat said, to free the Palestinians and Jerusalem from Israeli control.

“This certainly does not help the peace process. Why make Arafat feel he is on the right track? It is astonishing,” Amihud concluded.

Carter visited Israel last month and upset that government with his criticism of human rights treatment of the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He had planned to meet Arafat in Tunisia after visiting Jerusalem, but the meeting was canceled when Arafat left to attend independence ceremonies in Namibia.

A rescheduled meeting between Arafat and Carter had been expected for days, but Mitterrand’s office made a surprise announcement Wednesday that he would play host for the evening talks.

The session at the Elysee Palace was described by French officials as relaxed and informal. They said Arafat presented Carter with an oriental rug woven in Jerusalem and some clothing, destined for Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, embroidered by Palestinian women.

In recent months, Mitterrand and his foreign minister, Roland Dumas, have encouraged meetings with Arafat and Israel to resolve their differences. In May, 1989, Mitterrand was one of the first European leaders to officially greet Arafat.

After news of the Paris meeting leaked out late Wednesday afternoon, several pro-Israeli youth organizations staged a small demonstration outside the Crillon Hotel in the French capital, where Arafat was staying.

One of the protesting groups, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, charged that Arafat “only represents a facade of being a messenger of peace and conciliation. In reality, he remains partisan of a murderous conflict.”

In the United States, American supporters of Israel generally denounced the meeting.

Malcolm Hoenlin, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called the meeting “very unfortunate.”

“I don’t think Arafat has yet earned credibility by his actions and his statements,” Hoenlin said. “. . . The fact that a former President runs around trying to meet with a terrorist leader does not bring credit to his former position or to himself.”

Burton S. Levinson, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said that Carter “is doing what he thinks is appropriate to help the peace process.” But Levinson said a high-visibility meeting with Arafat would almost surely be counterproductive.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the Bush Administration “hesitates to tell him (Carter) not to get involved, but then they hold their breath that it will come out all right.”

Since leaving the presidency, Carter has sought to mediate regional conflicts in Africa and Central America as well as the Middle East.

Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson and staff writers Daniel Williams in Jerusalem and Norman Kempster in Washington also contributed to this story.

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