Arab-Israeli Talks Resume in Washington : Diplomacy: Sites of meetings are kept secret. Sessions are termed ‘less structured’ than earlier.

Israeli and Arab negotiators resumed their Middle East peace talks Monday in an expectant mood after a four-month lull. But, persuaded that public exposure hinders progress, they kept their meeting places here secret.

The lull has proven productive: When it began, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands at the White House over an agreement for Palestinian autonomy. Near the end of the four months, Syrian President Hafez Assad, after meeting with President Clinton in Geneva, pronounced himself ready to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel.

But the break has also made it clear that the key players and plays in the Middle East peace process operate outside the structure of the formal peace conference that opened in Madrid in October, 1991, and then moved to Washington.

In fact, although Israeli negotiator Danl Rothschild reportedly met with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat in Washington on Monday, far more significant negotiations were conducted by the two sides in the Egyptian resort of Taba and were scheduled for the Swiss town of Davos this Sunday.

State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said Israeli negotiators were meeting separately with Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese and Jordanian negotiators. She described the sessions as “less structured, more streamlined” than those in the past.

She said the exact sites of the Washington sessions were withheld from the media because “we felt that they would be most productive if the emphasis was on making progress and not just on making publicity.”

“All of those who are participating . . ,” she said, “simply felt that they did not want to be absolutely hammered every time they came and went with a whole bunch of questions.”

In Egypt, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for three hours to discuss control of telecommunications in the Gaza Strip and Jericho, then adjourned for a week. The more contentious issue of security--who will guard the borders of the enclaves--was left for Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Palestinian self-rule in Jericho and the Gaza Strip has been delayed because of the failure of both sides to agree on how Israel can monitor borders of the Palestinian enclaves without trampling on the Palestinians’ sovereign feelings. The Palestinians do not want Israeli guards at the borders.

Arafat and Peres met over the weekend in Oslo, the site of their original agreement, but failed to iron out a compromise.

Despite this, Peres sounded optimistic, telling Israeli radio, “We are at the heart of negotiations, and I think we are fairly close to an agreement.” Rabin told reporters: “There are signs of coming together. There is progress, but it will take time.”

PLO sources said Arafat was less optimistic. He and Peres will meet at the Davos World Economic Forum and presumably will take up the security issue again.

Meantime, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amir Moussa, who conferred with Arafat and other PLO officials Sunday, arrived in Jerusalem on Monday for talks.

U.S. officials obviously hope the discussions between Israeli negotiator Itamar Rabinovitch and Syrian negotiator Mowaffak Allaf will test the sincerity of Assad’s pledge that he is prepared to establish “normal peaceful relations” with Israel.

After the first session in Washington, Rabinovitch told Israeli television, “We opened a new round in a new place and a new atmosphere, with a good chance for progress, but we have to be realistic that it will be a long haul.”

Israelis have been skeptical about the Assad overture. But Rabin has talked of the possibility of a military withdrawal from the Golan Heights.