Arabs, Israel Suspend Meetings Until January : Diplomacy: There is little to show for 6 days of talks. The Palestinian delegation is still in dispute.

The second round of Middle East peace talks ended Wednesday with little to show for the six days of meetings. Arabs and Israelis agreed, however, to reconvene in January to resume their longest direct dialogue in the 43 years of Israel’s existence.

The troubled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off with sharp words on both sides. However, another session was set for Jan. 7, possibly in Washington, to wrestle again with the procedural roadblock that has confined the meetings to a couch in a State Department hallway.

Once at the conference table, the two sides are expected to discuss the issue of self-government for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Negotiations between Israel and Syria, marked mainly by an exchange of accusations, and talks between Israel and Lebanon, in which neither side has changed its original position, also ended as Israeli diplomats left for home.

The United States, a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process that began in Madrid in late October, remained on the sidelines despite repeated Arab calls for intervention to get the Israeli-Palestinian talks going. Israel, in contrast, was pleased that Washington stayed out of the talks.

Although the Arab delegates said they are willing to remain here for more talks, the Israelis insisted they had to return to Tel Aviv for consultations with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

“We came to engage, and they (Israelis) came to delay,” charged Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the Palestinians who were part of a joint delegation with Jordan. “All these tricks and ploys and games do not do justice to the Israeli people.”

But Elyakim Rubinstein, chief Israeli negotiator with the Jordanians and Palestinians, said the other side “insisted on symbolics that transcend the ground rules” to try to show parity between the Palestinians and Israel, which opposes an independent Palestinian delegation.

In her news conference, Ashrawi accused the Israelis of trying to change the ground rules established in Madrid and rejecting compromises, adding: “We have not come to Washington to surrender.”

Despite the lack of visible progress in any of the three sets of talks, Israeli spokesman Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that “significant headway” has been achieved.

“We’re well ahead because we now have had a chance to explore each other’s positions . . , to get to know the people involved, to get them to know us,” he told reporters. “We think, on the whole, we are on the right track.”

But he added that the time and place for the Israeli-Syrian talks and the Israeli-Lebanese talks have not been set and still are subject to negotiation. Israel has opposed negotiating in Washington and has advocated a site in the Middle East or Europe. Arab delegates prefer to meet in the U.S. capital, partly so that they can explain their position better to Americans.

Despite the disappointments, the Washington round of talks was seen as necessary if more substantive negotiations that might take months, if not years, are to conclude successfully.

“We are sorry that this has reached this snag, this impasse,” said Haidar Abdel Shafi, chief of the Palestinian team. “But we are not despairing.”

A similar sentiment was voiced by his Israeli counterpart, Rubinstein, who said: “We hope that the process will continue. It has to continue, for the sake of our region, the countries, everybody who lives in our region.”

“This is the first lap in a very long journey,” added Netanyahu.

Underscoring the distance yet to be traveled, Israeli diplomat Yosef Ben-Aharon said his talks with his Syrian counterparts consisted largely of charges and countercharges. “But doing so directly is a positive development,” he said. “The gulf between us is immense. . . . There’s a long way to go before they even will engage in small talk with us. But I believe we shall overcome.”

Syria has demanded immediate Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, formerly Syrian territory, while Israel has said that it wants to focus first on a peace treaty between the two countries before discussing the Golan Heights.

In the most low-profile talks, between Israel and Lebanon, the two sides reported slow progress in drafting principles for a peace treaty. Lebanon has proposed that Israel withdraw from a security buffer zone in the southern part of Lebanon. But before considering such a pullout, Israel has asked for assurances of its border security and the removal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.