Baker Views West Bank on Jordan-to-Israel Drive

Passing within a few hundred yards of one of the West Bank Jewish settlements he has long labeled an “obstacle to peace,” Secretary of State James A. Baker III traveled by road Tuesday from Jordan to Israel.

The two-hour trip, which aides described as a spur-of-the-moment detour, followed apparently inconclusive Middle East peace talks with Jordan’s King Hussein in Amman.

By walking over the wooden Allenby Bridge, spanning the shallow and narrow Jordan River, Baker apparently became the first secretary of state to cross the fortified border between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, State Department officials said.

He had originally been scheduled to fly from Jordan to Israel, following a circuitous route that avoids the requirement of a direct handoff from Jordanian to Israeli air traffic controllers.

As he neared Jerusalem, Baker’s motorcade passed Maale Adumim, a large, sprawling Jewish settlement of stone houses that serves as a bedroom community for the capital. He also passed tiny trailer-home outposts established in recent weeks by the settlement movement as “facts on the ground”--making it more difficult for the Israeli government to even consider the sort of land-for-peace swap that the United States has long advocated. Baker did not stop at the settlements.

In Jordan, Hussein pledged “total commitment to the cause of peace” and expressed concern that as good a chance for progress “will probably never come again.”

But he refused to say whether Jordan would attend a U.S.-sponsored regional peace conference if Syria does not.

Baker has said he hopes to obtain Syrian participation in the proposed conference, which would be co-sponsored by the Soviet Union. But he is also exploring the option of going on without the Damascus regime if President Hafez Assad refuses to come to terms on procedural matters.

A conference without Syria would be far less significant. But a conference without both Syria and Jordan is virtually unthinkable.

King Hussein is trying to avoid offending either the United States, which he hopes will soon resume economic aid, or Syria, his powerful northern neighbor.

With Baker standing beside him outside the royal palace, Hussein demonstrated his ambivalence.

Will Jordan refuse to attend a conference if Syria does not go? he was asked.

“I haven’t said that,” the monarch responded.

Well, does that mean Jordan will attend regardless of Syria’s decision?

“I haven’t said that either,” Hussein replied.

In the past, a highway trip by a secretary of state from Amman to Jerusalem would have had almost incendiary political significance. U.S. officials were reluctant to travel in the West Bank because of the disputed status of the territory. But in recent years that taboo has been increasingly ignored.

On Tuesday, both Jordan and Israel cooperated with the trip, even keeping the border crossing open for several hours beyond its usual early afternoon closing.

Escorted by two Jordanian army officers, Baker walked to within a step of the middle of the bridge, where he stopped. The Jordanians saluted and stepped back one pace.

Baker then stepped across into Israeli-controlled territory, where he was met by Israeli Brig. Gen. Gadi Zohar, who saluted and accompanied Baker to his limousine.

Shortly after he arrived in Jerusalem, Baker went into a meeting with three Palestinian residents. Baker meets today with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

In Washington, President Bush took issue with the suggestion that Baker’s mission has so far failed.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a failure,” Bush said at a news conference. “But there are ups and downs in this process. There always have been. Everybody that’s ever dealt with the Middle East knows that there are ups and downs in the process.

“I’m not discouraged,” Bush said. “We’ll just keep working on this.”

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this article.