U.S. Dismisses Israel’s Gripes on Talks Site

The Bush Administration dismissed Israel’s complaints about the U.S. decision to convene Arab-Israeli peace talks in Washington, saying Monday that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has no grounds to feel slighted and expressing confidence that the talks can still begin on schedule next week.

But the U.S.-Israeli argument over the talks’ format escalated, with the Israelis complaining that Secretary of State James A. Baker III is trying to “dictate the agenda” of the meeting.

Baker, trying to nudge Israel and the Arabs into talking about the substance of the Middle East conflict, has suggested that the warring parties begin discussing possible frameworks for formal peace agreements during the next talks, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

But Israel, still unhappy about the procedural details of the meeting, complained that Baker’s suggestions are pushing them too fast.

“Why should the Americans dictate the agenda?” a senior Israeli official in Jerusalem complained. “The Bush Administration is trying to tell everyone what to do.”

U.S. officials expressed frustration over Israel’s focus on procedural details. “It’s unbelievable,” said one official. “We’re trying to move these people toward peace, and all they want to argue about is where the talks are located.”

Behind the dispute over procedures, however, are deep Israeli concerns that the Bush Administration may press Shamir for serious concessions on matters of substance--and Israeli resolve to fight that pressure every inch of the way, officials said.

Jordan and Lebanon have formally accepted the U.S. invitation to come to Washington for separate talks with Israel beginning Dec. 4. Palestinian representatives from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have said informally that they will come.

Syria, Israel’s most hard-line enemy, has reportedly demanded that Israel agree to discuss withdrawing its troops from the once-Syrian Golan Heights and that the State Department remove it from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Baker has rejected both requests, saying there will be “no preconditions,” officials said.

Israel has raised the most vociferous objections, complaining that the invitation to the talks was issued while Shamir was still in Washington last week and before he had a chance to raise the issue with President Bush.

Although the initial deadline the Administration set for responses to its invitation passed on Monday without replies from three of five participants, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said Baker feels no concern over that.

Tutwiler said she is puzzled by the Israeli reaction, which she called “mysterious.” Israel and the Arabs were told well before last week that the United States was considering Washington as the talks site, she said.

In the message inviting Israel to the talks, Baker asked whether Israel would consider surrendering the Golan Heights if Syria agrees to sign a full peace treaty; suggested that the Israelis and Palestinians offer models for self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and urged Israel and Jordan to outline a framework for a peace accord, Israeli officials said. U.S. officials confirmed the substance of their account.

Israeli officials said it is too early to discuss such substantive matters when their government is still pressing for the talks to be moved to the Middle East--something Shamir has demanded as a form of Arab recognition of the Jewish state.

To head off discussions of substance, Shamir is demanding that the Washington round take up only the issue of where the next round should take place and what agenda should be followed. “We don’t want to go to Washington in the first place,” said a senior government official. “So if we do, we are going just to discuss technicalities.”

McManus reported from Washington and Williams from Jerusalem.