U.S. Relents, May Accept ‘Safe Areas’ Plan for Bosnia : Diplomacy: The Administration, long suspicious of European proposal, concedes it has little choice but to agree.

The Clinton Administration acknowledged Friday that it is likely to go along with an allied peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it sought to distance itself from the proposal, which would establish “safe areas” for Muslims without rolling back territorial gains made by Bosnian Serbs.

Senior Administration officials said they saw little choice because the United States has been unable to persuade its allies to take military action against the Serbs.

Although U.S. officials acknowledged that the proposal--being promoted by Russia, Britain and France--will allow the Serbs to retain control of the 70% of Bosnia’s territory they now occupy, the Americans recoiled from suggestions that it amounted to “acceptance” of the acquisition of territory by force.

“It’s not acceptance,” one official said. “It’s all we can do right now.”

President Clinton openly expressed skepticism that the plan would provide a satisfactory long-term solution. Before beginning a Cabinet meeting Friday morning, he said he doubted the wisdom of establishing the safe areas for Muslims and again made it clear that the United States will not send ground troops to join U.N. forces assigned to protect the enclaves.

“I don’t want to see the United States get in a position where we’re re-creating Northern Ireland, Lebanon or Cyprus, or anything else,” said Clinton, who has urged the use of military force, primarily air strikes against Serbian artillery, to end the fighting. “We don’t want our people to be in there basically in a shooting gallery.”

He said the “fundamental interests” of the United States are two: “We want the conflict to be contained, and we want the slaughter and the ‘ethnic cleansing’ to stop.” Over the long term, he said, “there will have to be some reasonable borders--some political solution to this which has a reasonable territorial component.”

Ultimately, the Administration hopes that by applying increased economic and diplomatic pressures, the international community can force the Serbs to agree to a territorial settlement acceptable to the region’s Croats and Muslims.

U.S. officials say that the only way to achieve a stable long-term solution is for all three Bosnian factions to accept a settlement. But if the Serbs are able to withstand economic and diplomatic pressure, they will be apparently able to keep the territory they have taken by force.

Clinton’s statements seemed calculated to distance his Administration from measures he considers too weak to do much good. And they represented a new stage in the thinking of the President, who was first undecided about a course of action and then pushed for joint military intervention and in the past two weeks has acknowledged that the Europeans were unlikely to go along with his plan.

But French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, in an interview in France, sardonically compared Clinton’s new attitude to that of Pontius Pilate’s gesture of washing his hands after Jesus’ condemnation.

Although little doubt remains about the broad outlines of the steps the international community is ready to take, U.S. and allied officials said that many important details need to be worked out. For instance, decisions must be made on the number and nationality of the peacekeeping troops that would protect the enclaves, the procedure for disarming Muslims in the protected areas, rules of engagement to prevent Serb attacks on the enclaves and other matters.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher met Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev and British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to discuss the Bosnia morass, and Christopher is scheduled to meet today with Juppe. Hurd and Kozyrev are also expected to attend that session.

“I think we will come out with a plan of action, but we need more consultation,” Kozyrev told reporters after the Friday meeting. “We have a complicated process. Now we have to put it all together and it will take some time, but we are on the right track.”

Hurd insisted that the international community had not “accepted or recognized” Serbian gains, although he acknowledged that the emerging plan would not immediately reverse the aggression.

The Bosnia Puzzle

Bosnian Serbs have repeatedly rejected a U.N. peace plan because it would require them to cede much of the 70% of Bosnia they hold. An emerging Western plan would rely on “safe areas” to protect Muslims.