Gorbachev, Bush Seek Mideast Talks in October

President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced Wednesday that the two superpowers will “work to convene” a Mideast peace conference in October as a step toward achieving “a just and enduring peace” for Israel and its Arab neighbors.

“We believe there is a historic opportunity right now to launch a process that can lead to . . . a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East,” Bush said at a joint press conference with Gorbachev as they neared the end of their two-day summit meeting.

The joint U.S.-Soviet declaration was a major escalation in the pressure on a reluctant Israel to put aside its reservations and accept Washington’s approach to the quest for a Mideast settlement. And it was coupled with a decision by Bush to dispatch Secretary of State James A. Baker III to Jerusalem “to obtain Israel’s answer to our proposal for peace.”

“We share the strong conviction that this historic opportunity must not be lost,” Bush said.

As a further inducement to Israel, Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh said he, too, will travel to Jerusalem, carrying a Soviet commitment to normalize relations with Israel--but only if it agrees to join in the proposed peace conference.

Israel, in response to earlier American appeals, has agreed in principle to attend such a conference but has insisted on prior assurances that the Palestinians will not be represented at the talks by Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization or by Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

But a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir immediately spurned the latest U.S. move. He declared that Israel is not worried by the pressure of another Baker visit--the second in less than two weeks--and will continue to hold out for assurances on Palestinian representation.

The senior aide, Yosef Ben-Aharon, said the prime minister had “expected something like this.” Characterizing the Moscow announcement as public relations, Ben-Aharon said: “The United States was eager to wrap this up at the (Moscow) summit. They wanted to produce all kinds of achievements. I hope they enjoy it in good health.”

Baker, due to arrive in Jerusalem this afternoon and scheduled to confer with Shamir, also will meet with Palestinian representatives in Israel and will remain there until Friday.

The secretary of state will then fly to Amman, Jordan, and to three North African countries--Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia--to seek their support for the peace talks before returning to Washington. U.S. sources dismissed suggestions from Israel that Baker is going to Tunisia to meet with Arafat or other representatives of the PLO, which is headquartered in Tunis.

“While recognizing that peace cannot be imposed, it can only result from direct negotiations between the parties,” Bush said, “the United States and the Soviet Union pledge to do their utmost to promote and sustain the peacemaking process.”

U.S. officials hinted some weeks ago that, if Israel continued to balk, they might publicly announce the convening of a peace conference and thereby put Israel in the awkward position of acquiescing or taking the blame for torpedoing chances for a settlement.

Wednesday’s action stopped short of such a step, but it was a significant move in that direction.

Invitations to the peace conference “will be issued at least 10 days prior to the convening of the conference,” Bush said. In the interim, Baker and Bessmertnykh will continue to work with Israel and the Arab countries in preparing for the meeting, the President said.

Baker telephoned Shamir on Wednesday morning, several hours before the Bush-Gorbachev press conference, to inform him of the decision to move toward convening a peace conference.

Ben-Aharon, an influential member of Shamir’s inner circle, said Israel is awaiting word from Baker on who would represent the Palestinians at the proposed conference.

While Ben-Aharon was throwing cold water on the Baker visit, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy was saying in Egypt that “the opportunity for peace is at the threshold,” and Egyptian officials were expressing hope that new compromise proposals can be put forward to persuade Israel to join a peace conference.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said that “real progress, definite progress” was made in the talks with Levy and that Egypt had offered a variety of proposals for overcoming Israel’s opposition to meeting with Palestinian delegates from Jerusalem.

Egyptian diplomats said Foreign Minister Amir Moussa proposed a compromise in which East Jerusalem Palestinians would be excluded from the first round of talks, although their presence would not be precluded in any later negotiations. Moussa also repeated Egypt’s earlier proposal to include Jordanian residents and passport holders who were born in East Jerusalem or who have strong family or property ties to the holy city, Foreign Ministry officials said.

The Bush Administration has been cranking up the pressure on Israel to join a peace conference ever since the leaders of the major industrialized democracies endorsed the idea of the conference at their seven-nation economic summit in London on July 16.

As the London summit ended, Baker made a hurried trip to four Arab states in the Mideast--Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia--lining up their support for the conference before he ended his Mideast tour in Israel. At the time, a senior Administration official said the itinerary was planned to try to forge Arab unity before Baker visited Israel and that “to the extent (Baker) is able to bring the Arabs together, there will be a major source of pressure on Israel it has never faced before.”

After Baker won Arab support for the conference and appealed directly to Shamir, Israeli officials endorsed the idea of the talks “in principle” but balked at accepting an invitation to participate unless they were given assurances on Palestinian representation.

The positive response of Syrian President Hafez Assad to the peace proposal, in a letter to Bush that the President cited at the London summit, provided the momentum for securing Arab support for the conference. But the Israelis reacted coolly to the Assad initiative, too, declaring it was a ploy to blame Israel for the lack of progress in bringing peace to the war-torn Middle East.

Although Shamir has given special emphasis to the importance of Syria’s agreeing to attend the conference, Ben-Aharon said Wednesday that the chance of progress at any peace talks would be greater with the Palestinians than with the Syrians. In part, this reflects his distrust of Assad.

Times staff writers Daniel Williams, in Jerusalem, and Kim Murphy, in Cairo, contributed to this story.

Filling in the Blanks on Mideast Talks

Although President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev called for a Mideast peace conference in October, many details still must be settled. Among them:

Where: Israel wants Washington. Some Arabs want Cairo. The Soviets propose Geneva.

Who: Composition of the Palestinian delegation is unresolved. Israel insists Palestinians from East Jerusalem must be excluded. Most delegations would include the heads of state or foreign ministers, with Bush and Gorbachev as hosts.

Agenda: Opening plenary sessions would include all parties-- Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinians. Observers would come from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, United Nations and 12-nation European Community. In two days, each party would present its position.

Premise: All parties agree that agenda would be based on U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, which call on Israel to cede lands captured from its neighbors in exchange for security.

Regional talks: Regional peace talks--which would expand to include Saudi Arabia and possibly Turkey--would come two weeks after the plenary. That agenda would include proposals for sharing water and for curbing nuclear and chemical weapons.

Source: Times Wire Services