U.S. Offers Palestinians Inducements to Talk

The Clinton Administration has offered Palestinian delegates a package of inducements to persuade them to resume negotiations with Israel, improving the prospects that all Arab delegations will be at the bargaining table as scheduled on April 20, senior State Department officials said Thursday.

Edward P. Djerejian, the department’s top Middle East expert, said Washington has dangled “a very significant package of statements, gestures and actions” before the Palestinians. They have been reluctant to return to the talks until Israel agrees to permit almost 400 Palestinians to return together from exile in southern Lebanon.

“Once a positive decision is made (by the Palestinians) on resumption of the talks, there will be things that will happen and they are significant,” Djerejian told Arab journalists at a press conference broadcast by the U.S. government to Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

Although Djerejian and other officials declined to reveal the package’s contents, they made it clear that the actions can be taken by Washington alone, without Israeli agreement. The American steps were offered as sweeteners after the Israeli government refused to make additional concessions on the emotional deportation issue.

“Nothing will happen if they don’t accept; some good things will occur if they do accept,” a senior official said. He said that the Palestinians have been told what the United States is prepared to do and, therefore, are not being asked to accept the promises on faith.

In a separate inducement to the Palestinians, the U.S. government has urged Israel to permit Faisal Husseini to become the official chairman of the Palestinian delegation. Although Husseini serves as the delegation’s senior adviser, Israel refuses to negotiate with him because he is a resident of Jerusalem. Israel regards the status of Jerusalem to be beyond the scope of the talks and therefore refuses to accept Palestinian delegates who live in the city.

In Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud Party, challenged Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to deny press reports that Israel is ready to accept Husseini. The prime minister refused to do so, although he did not confirm the story either.

The Palestine Liberation Organization, the behind-the-scenes sponsor of the Palestinian delegation, ended a meeting this week in Tunis without deciding if the Palestinians would return to the talks.

Ghassan Khatib, a senior member of the Palestinian delegation who attended the Tunis meeting, said that the PLO leadership is very reluctant to permit the negotiations to resume.

“We want to go back but we need something that shows the compromise is worthwhile,” Khatib said.

But a senior State Department official said that Secretary of State Warren Christopher is “quite confident that the parties will be here.”

Kempster reported from Washington and Parks from Jerusalem.