Middle East Talks ‘Open for Business,’ U.S. Says : Diplomacy: Washington is confident that process will survive likely propaganda show if Israel is absent.

Vowing to have Middle East talks “open and ready for business” as scheduled this week, even if Israel refuses to participate, the Bush Administration expressed confidence Monday that the fragile peace process will survive a likely propaganda show.

Delegations representing Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians have agreed to attend U.S.-brokered talks in Washington on Wednesday, although Israel has said it will not be ready until next Monday. This has raised the distinct possibility that both the Arabs and the Israelis will meet according to their own schedule, each with an empty chair across the table.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler ruled out any change in the starting date set by the United States and the Soviet Union as co-sponsors of the talks after Israel and its Arab adversaries failed to agree on a time and place to continue the bilateral discussions that began Nov. 3 in Madrid.

“We think that it is important that if the co-sponsors send out a proposal, that we not unilaterally alter that proposal, and so we haven’t,” Tutwiler said. “On Wednesday, we will be open and ready for business, and we will have the facilities ready.”

If only the Arabs show up on Wednesday, they would be in a position to call in photographers to take pictures of the empty Israeli chair. Tutwiler said that it would be up to participants to decide if any part of the meeting would be public. If only one side is present, it could presumably set its own rules for press and television coverage.

Although U.S. officials hope to persuade the Arabs to remain in Washington until next Monday, when Israel has said it will send its delegation, there is no guarantee that all of the Arab parties will agree to attend on a schedule dictated by Israel. If the Arabs go home after the Wednesday non-meeting, the Israelis might decide to stage their own empty-chair session Monday.

Despite its refusal to send its peace negotiators to Washington this week, the Israeli government readied a public relations counteroffensive, dispatching one of its most articulate officials, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Washington on an ostensibly separate errand.

Israel insisted on the change in dates because Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was miffed that the invitations for the Wednesday meeting were sent out just before he met with President Bush for what he had expected to be a consultation about time and place.