Mideast Talks Begin Without 3 Key Players

Israel and 11 Arab countries met for the first time Tuesday in a new round of U.S.-sponsored talks on Middle Eastern regional issues, but three of Israel’s most important adversaries--the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon--did not show up.

The occasion represented a diplomatic landmark--it was the first time Israel and so many Arab countries talked directly about issues of mutual interest. But the decision by the key Arab parties to stay away stole attention from that achievement.

The dispute was a setback for Secretary of State James A. Baker III and deprived the conference of much of its intended effect.

Baker designed this week’s multilateral meeting to get the countries of the Middle East talking about subjects of common interest, such as arms control, economic development and use of the region’s scarce water resources. His aim was to promote cooperation among old enemies.

Instead, the meeting turned into another forum for arguing about issues that have bedeviled the one-to-one talks between Israel and her neighbors since they began in Madrid last October.

Senior U.S. officials said the multilateral talks will continue but acknowledged that without the front-line Arabs, the impact of the talks will be limited.

The absence of the Palestinians was a particular blow to Baker and his aides. Syria and Lebanon had said for several months that they would not attend, but U.S. diplomats held out hope until Tuesday morning that the Palestinians would decide to participate.

“We are disappointed, of course, that the Palestinian delegation chose not to attend,” Baker said. “I think it would have been better if we could have had all of (the Arab delegations) present.”

The Palestinians stayed out of the talks because Baker and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev, the co-sponsors of the talks, rejected the makeup of their delegation.

In earlier rounds, the Palestinians bowed to Israeli demands that their delegation include only residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip--not Arab East Jerusalem or the large Palestinian population in exile.

This time, the Palestinians came to Moscow with a delegation they knew Israel would object to, including two members from Jerusalem and three from the “diaspora” outside Israel and the occupied territories.

Both Baker and Kozyrev appealed by telephone to the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, Faisal Husseini, to back down but to no avail.

Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said the issue is “essential” because only one-third of the world’s 5.3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“We want a delegation that is comprehensive, representative and legitimate,” she said.

But Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy flatly rejected the presence of any Palestinian exiles because, he charged, “the underlying intention is to introduce the PLO” into the talks, an idea that Israel abhors.

Levy also rejected any Palestinian representation from Jerusalem because that might imply that Israel’s sovereignty over the city is in question, Israeli officials said. Israel annexed the Arab portion of the city after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East War, but the legality of the action is not internationally accepted.

Baker said he sympathizes with one part of the Palestinian position: their argument that Palestinian refugees from outside the occupied territories should be allowed to participate in talks on Middle East refugee problems and economic development.

In a compromise proposal that he hoped both sides would accept, Baker suggested that Palestinian exiles join talks on those issues at a later date.

But both Ashrawi and Levy said his offer fell short of their conditions, and U.S. officials said they will make no special effort to bridge the gap before the conference reconvenes today.

The argument over Palestinian representation dimmed the diplomatic achievement of persuading so many Arab countries to sit down with Israel.

Arab countries that did participate included Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Except for Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, none had openly negotiated with Israel before.

Algeria and Yemen had planned to attend but pulled out in sympathy with the Palestinians.

Canada, Japan, Turkey, Ukraine, the European Community and China, which established diplomatic relations with Israel only last week, also were present.

The atmosphere in the cavernous Hall of Columns of the House of Unions--a room where Soviet dictator Josef Stalin held the “show trials” of his political rivals in the 1930s--was informal and relaxed through a seven-hour marathon of opening speeches.

Israeli diplomats sat across from Gulf Arabs in desert robes with none of the tension that marked the Madrid conference in October. A few even chatted with each other in the hallways; Israel’s David Kimche, a longtime intelligence agent and diplomatic envoy, found himself chatting with two Omani officials in multicolored headdresses.

Today the conference is scheduled to set up “working groups” on the issues of arms control, refugees, economic development, water resources and environmental protection.

The main product of the session, U.S. officials said, would probably be an agreement on the makeup of the working groups.