Arab Nations Agree to Resume Peace Talks With Israel : Mideast: U.N. Security Council’s vote to condemn Hebron massacre brings Syria, Lebanon and Jordan back to the table. Christopher says PLO may soon follow.

Syria, Lebanon and Jordan agreed Friday to resume peace talks with Israel after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution condemning the massacre of Palestinians in a West Bank mosque. The U.N. action also let the Palestine Liberation Organization inch toward renewed negotiations with the Israelis.

Moments after the resolution was adopted, Secretary of State Warren Christopher told a news conference here that “a senior-level meeting between Israel and the PLO will take place soon” and “it is the expectation that these discussions will lead to early resumption of negotiations.”

But Friday’s announcement reflected a seeming defeat for the Clinton Administration in its tug of war with the PLO over the resolution.

American officials had threatened to veto the measure unless PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed to an immediate resumption of negotiations. But the PLO refused, insisting that it wanted the United Nations to condemn the massacre without conditions.

The PLO--after making a highly publicized breakthrough in the Middle East peace process with Israel last fall--broke off talks on Palestinian autonomy in Gaza and the West Bank city of Jericho after an Israeli settler gunned down about 30 praying Palestinians in the mosque of the Cave of the Partriarchs in Hebron on Feb. 25.

At the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador, abstained on two paragraphs in the resolution but joined the 14 other Security Council members in condemning the killings and calling on Israel to take measures “to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territory.”

These measures, the resolution said, should include “a temporary international or foreign presence”--a reference to the possible stationing of outside observers in the occupied territories.

Passage of the resolution, Christopher announced, let Syria, Lebanon and Jordan agree to resume their bilateral negotiations with Israel in April. The three Arab countries had suspended the talks after the Hebron massacre.

Christopher said these negotiations, the impending PLO-Israel contacts and the dispatch of a State Department team to consult with the parties in the Middle East “will move us toward putting the whole peace process back on track.”

Senior Administration officials said the decision to resume the talks between Israel and Syria, Lebanon and Jordan was galvanized by a phone call Thursday in which President Clinton urged Syrian President Hafez Assad and the others to return to the negotiations.

Assad phoned Clinton after noon Friday, the officials said, and told him that King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon had agreed to resume talks.

High-level telephone calls were a feature of the day. Christopher said that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had called Arafat in Tunis, Tunisia, earlier in the day. In Jerusalem, Israeli officials said Rabin made the call to discuss resumption of peace negotiations.

At the Americans’ insistence, the Security Council voted on each paragraph of its resolution separately. The procedure let Albright register her objection by abstaining on two paragraphs without vetoing or abstaining on the entire resolution.

“It is precisely to serve and protect the peace process,” she said, “that my government has--with great reluctance--made the difficult decision to allow this resolution to pass today, despite the existence of some language we find objectionable.”

First, Albright said, “we simply do not support the description of territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 War as ‘occupied Palestinian territory.’ ” She said “this language could be taken to indicate sovereignty,” a matter that Israel and the PLO, in their Declaration of Principles signed in Washington on Sept. 13, agreed would be taken up in later negotiations.

Second, she said she objected to the description of Jerusalem as an occupied territory of Israel since “Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues to be addressed in the negotiations.”

“My government does not believe that it is helpful in the negotiations to include the kind of reference that is made to Jerusalem,” she said. “It could prejudice or prejudge the outcome of negotiations.”

She told the Security Council that the United States had decided that it would not veto the resolution because the offending language was in the preamble rather than in its key operating paragraphs.

Those key paragraphs--introduced by France, Britain, Spain, Russia and Djibouti:

* Strongly condemned “the massacre in Hebron and its aftermath.”

* Called on Israel “to continue to take and implement measures, including . . . confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers.”

* Sought measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territory including . . . a temporary international or foreign presence.”

* Recommended the implementation of the Declaration of Principles.

In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said the 15-minute discussion between Rabin and Arafat was largely “one of negatives.” The Israeli leader told Arafat that he could not meet the full PLO demands but “would only do what he could”--and expected Arafat to recognize his own political needs within Israel.

Rabin outlined the measures--including the banning of extremist Jewish groups and the detention without trial of their leaders--that he had already taken to curb violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against Palestinian residents, according to Israeli officials. Rabin pledged follow-up action next week.

Plans for a meeting between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were discussed, according to Israeli officials, and the meeting could come early next week in Cairo.

“The suitcases are not yet packed,” Israeli Environment Minister Yossi Sarid cautioned. “But there is a possibility, a strong one, that such a meeting will take place soon, and with it full negotiations would follow.”

In his talk with Arafat, Rabin reportedly said Israel would not pull its 450 settlers out of the West Bank town of Hebron but would take steps to gather them into one or two groups in the town or in the adjacent settlement of Kiryat Arba, reducing the friction with Palestinians and making it easier for Israeli forces to protect settlers.

Israeli officials said Rabin emphasized the need to implement the basic agreement between his government and the PLO on Palestinian self-government in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho District in the West Bank.

The sources also said Rabin told Arafat that the Israeli army is already moving large numbers of troops out of Gaza and regrouping those that remain around the Jewish settlements there. But he warned that the steps could be reversed if the negotiations stall.

Peres, meanwhile, met with Faisal Husseini, the senior PLO leader in Jerusalem, to argue for resumption of the talks, despite strong sentiment against it in the West Bank.

Israel said it hoped the Security Council resolution would bring the rapid resumption of talks with the PLO on Palestinian self-government as well as peace negotiations with neighboring Arab states.

“Israel believes the best way to promote peace and security between Israelis and Palestinians is by resuming and accelerating negotiations on the implementation of the (Declaration of Principles) on Gaza and Jericho,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Uriel Palti said. “In regard to the Security Council resolution, Israel hopes it will pave the way for the resumption of these talks with the PLO.”

Palti noted: “Israel was first to condemn the horrendous massacre in Hebron and will continue to take decisive actions against extremist and dangerous elements.

“Israel will encourage any measures to restore stability in the territories as far as they are in conformity with the Declaration of Principles,” Palti said, “and it will do its utmost to carry out its responsibility for the security of all Arabs and Israelis in the territories.”

Meisler reported from Washington and Parks from Jerusalem. Times staff writers Doyle McManus and Norman Kempster contributed to this report from Washington.

Words of Condemnation

Here is the text of the resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council. It was sponsored by Djibouti, as coordinator of the council’s nonaligned members, as well as Britain, France, Spain and Russia.

The Security Council,

Shocked by the appalling massacre committed against Palestinian worshipers in the Mosque of Ibrahim in Hebron, on 25 February, 1994, during the holy month of Ramadan,

Gravely concerned by the consequent Palestinian casualties in the occupied Palestinian territory as a result of the massacre, which underlines the need to provide protection and security for the Palestinian people,

Determined to overcome the adverse impact of the massacre on the peace process currently under way,

Noting with satisfaction the efforts undertaken to guarantee the smooth proceeding of the peace process and calling upon all concerned to continue their efforts to this end,

Noting the condemnation of this massacre by the entire international community,

Reaffirming its relevant resolutions, which affirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August, 1949, to the territories occupied by Israel in June, 1967, including Jerusalem, and the Israeli responsibilities thereunder,

1. Strongly condemns the massacre in Hebron and its aftermath, which took the lives of more than 50 Palestinian civilians and injured several hundred others.

2. Calls upon Israel, the occupying power, to continue to take and implement measures, including, inter alia , confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers.

3. Calls for measures to be taken to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territory, including, inter alia , a temporary international or foreign presence, which was provided for in the Declaration of Principles, within the context of the ongoing peace process.

4. Requests the co-sponsors of the peace process, the United States of America and the Russian Federation, to continue their efforts to invigorate the peace process and to undertake the necessary support for the implementation of the above-mentioned measures.

5. Reaffirms its support for the peace process currently under way, and calls for the implementation of the Declaration of Principles, signed by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on 13 September, 1993, in Washington, D.C., without delay.