Israelis, Egyptians Optimistic About Middle East Peace

Israeli and Egyptian officials said Sunday they are optimistic that obstacles blocking Middle East peace negotiations can be overcome, and the Egyptians pressed Israel to make stronger commitments toward meaningful self-rule for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In his first visit to Egypt since a coalition led by his Labor Party took power, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the negotiating arena is “full of new ideas” and pledged Israel’s readiness to implement limited self-rule for the Palestinians within the next 12 months.

“We have suggested to deal with first things first and second things second, and we feel that we made a great deal of progress for the last five hours,” Peres said at the conclusion of meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amir Moussa.

“The possibilities are there,” Mubarak added during a joint press conference with Peres on the steps of his presidential palace. “The question is a question of time and negotiations, but if God wills, the gap will be closed.”

In Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported that the two sides agreed to hold monthly meetings between representatives of the Egyptian and Israeli foreign ministries to help keep the peace talks on track.

Egypt is not a direct party to the U.S.-sponsored talks, but as the only Arab country to have a peace agreement with Israel, it has sought every opportunity to function as a mediator, a role that may now become regular and permanent.

Peres seemed to underscore that possibility when he told reporters here: “We are full of new ideas, and we are negotiating all the time and uninterrupted with the Palestinian delegation. We feel over (this) weekend there was a little bit of progress, which was encouraging, and we do feel that Egypt should play a mediating role of great importance.”

Egypt launched a new round of mediation in the deadlocked peace process last week after Israeli officials left--and then rejoined--multilateral talks on refugees in Canada, bilateral talks in Washington dragged on without progress and rising violence on the Israel-Lebanon border threatened to upset the relative calm that has prevailed in the region since the peace talks began last year in Madrid.

Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat flew to Cairo earlier in the week, urging Egyptian mediation to persuade the Israelis to give the PLO a more visible role in the talks and make stronger commitments to meaningful Palestinian self-rule in the period of autonomy that is supposed to precede a decision on the final status of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Talks on Palestinian refugees threatened to break down last week when Israelis refused to meet with a member of the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s parliament in exile. The difficulty was overcome when the Egyptian delegate certified that the Palestinian’s membership in the council had lapsed. But the dispute underscored growing frustration within the PLO about the organization’s back-seat role in the talks.

Arafat also sought Egyptian help to press the Israelis for stronger commitments on interim arrangements in the occupied territories during the limited period of Palestinian self-rule, projected to last about five years after an agreement is forged. Palestinians have complained that Israeli delegates have limited discussion to “micro” technical issues instead of larger political questions, shrugging aside Palestinian demand for a ruling council that would deal with legislative, not just administrative, matters.

“They’re making it a detailed discussion of minor issues. When we ask them who has jurisdiction, they won’t answer. What area? They won’t answer,” said one Arab source familiar with the talks.

Arafat also raised Palestinian demands to discuss the status of Jerusalem early in the talks and to press the Israelis for better treatment for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Peres, speaking to reporters after a three-hour meeting with Mubarak and a two-hour session with Moussa, emphasized that Israel is not prepared to discuss the status of Jerusalem at this point in the talks but said that the Israeli government is ready to be flexible on other issues.

“In Israel, we have changed not only the government, we have changed the policies, and we have a clear mandate from our people to go ahead upon the policy we have suggested,” Peres said. “The present government has offered the Palestinians to have a political election, not a municipal one, and the ones they elect, the executive body, will report to the people, not to us.

“We have suggested to implement the interim solution in a matter of nine to 12 months, we have suggested a mixed model where both functional and land relations would be met,” he said. “And I think we really went the longest possible way to make the interim solution something real. . . .”