Arab Delegations Accuse Israel of Stalling, Bad Faith on Talks

Arab delegations, accusing Israel of stalling and bad faith, arrived Tuesday for the scheduled start of U.S.-brokered Middle East peace talks while Israel maintained its boycott to dramatize its distaste for the active American role.

Underlining its contempt for the Bush Administration’s belief that Arab-Israeli peace requires territorial compromise, the Israeli government Tuesday approved the establishment of another new Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Militant nationalists had demanded that step to show Israel’s determination to hold all territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler on Tuesday also announced that regional talks on Middle East issues such as arms control, water resources and economic development will occur in Moscow Jan. 28 and 29. As many as 30 countries are expected to attend the meeting, which the United States and the Soviet Union, as co-sponsors, consider the third phase of the Middle East peace conference that began Oct. 30 in Madrid.

Despite the increasing acrimony, the U.S. government pressed ahead with plans to open the bilateral talks today as scheduled, although Israel has said that it will not send its delegation until next Monday. Syria, Lebanon and the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegations plan to attend today’s meeting, sitting across the table from an empty Israeli chair.

U.S. and Israeli officials expressed confidence that the Arabs would remain in Washington until the Israelis arrive. Although the Arab delegations declined to promise to meet on the Israeli schedule, individual delegates said they would show up Monday ready to talk.

But Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said the Palestinians are reluctant to meet on Monday because it is the anniversary of the intifada, the uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

All the Arab delegations have called for an immediate freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Nevertheless, Shamir’s government sent soldiers to 15 mobile homes brought to the West Bank by militant settlers and declared the site a military camp, an action that signaled the government’s intent to build a civilian community, Israeli officials said.

Meanwhile, in an apparent effort to smooth relations with Israel, the State Department said the United States will press for a vote before the U.N. General Assembly adjourns later this month on repeal of the 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism.

Kempster reported from Washington and Williams from Jerusalem.