Mideast Leaders Agree to Palestinian Industry Zones

President Clinton, seeking to jump-start stalled Middle East peace talks, convened a meeting Sunday of the foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt and Jordan and a senior Palestinian official, and the former adversaries agreed to open the way for new economic ties.

Clinton pledged in his opening remarks that the United States will “redouble our efforts to get the peace process back in full gear.”

“We are not going to let the peace process collapse,” Clinton declared. “Today it is for us to begin to take the specific steps necessary to have the message of peace and a renewed commitment carried out.”

At the three-hour meeting chaired by Secretary of State Warren Christopher, the Mideast officials agreed to establish a series of industrial zones in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The Administration said it will ask Congress to grant duty-free status to goods produced in the industrial parks.

Israeli industrialists are expected to play the most significant role in setting up small industries, although the Palestinian Authority, which administers Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho, also hopes to raise funds. And both sides want U.S. companies to participate.

The overall goal is to create job opportunities and development for Palestinians in ways that will benefit both sides--and symbolize the new possibilities of cooperation.

“I am absolutely convinced we have to move as quickly as we can to show there are economic benefits from peace,” Clinton said.

Administration sources said the plan calls for six or seven industrial zones--two or three in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank. Although there is no timetable, the sources said that all parties understand the urgency.

Clinton said he also is prepared to consider extending special trade status to a free-trade zone in the border area shared by Israel, Egypt and Jordan if the three countries set up one.

On a second issue, the joint communique approved by the officials announced new efforts to explore practical steps that all four parties can take on political, economic, security and social issues.

“If they’re going to create tangible progress, then they have to get down to specific cases of where they might be able to share information and technical assistance,” a senior Administration official said.

The United States also agreed to provide the Palestinian police force with medical equipment and 200 vehicles to use on patrols and to assist with anti-terrorist efforts.

But the steps are comparatively tiny on the long road to peace.

“We have no illusions about the difficulties ahead,” Christopher said after the meeting. At the same time, he expressed confidence that the Washington meeting had produced a “road map for the months ahead.”

The obstacles were underscored by the fact that Syria, Israel’s most intractable enemy among its immediate neighbors, was not represented at the talks. Syrian-Israeli peace talks are at an impasse.

As a result of the Washington talks, Christopher said, the Israeli and Palestinian leadership will be able to meet this week “in a new and improved environment.” A similar meeting Thursday between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat ended in deadlock.

The Palestinian-Israeli track of the complex Mideast negotiations has been stalled in part by critical security and economic issues, including a wave of bombings by Islamic extremists. A suicide bombing last month killed 21 Israelis, leading Israel to seal off the Palestinian territories, a step that blocked tens of thousands of Palestinians from getting to their jobs in Israel.

Israel wants greater security guarantees, while the Palestinian Authority wants the Palestinian territories reopened. Reflecting the polarization, the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday extended its ban on Palestinians entering the Jewish state for another week even before the Washington meeting began.

Israeli Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, who is also a negotiator in talks with the PLO, said the move came in response to intelligence reports of imminent terrorist attacks. Next week marks the first anniversary of the attack in which about 30 Muslims were shot to death in a Hebron mosque by a right-wing Jewish settler, and Israel is bracing for revenge attacks.

In his opening remarks, Clinton said: “We are at a critical moment in the peace process. We cannot allow the rise of terror again to threaten this peace.”

Afterward, Christopher said the talks made no major headway on the security dispute. But at separate talks Sunday morning between Israeli and Palestinian officials, he said, Israel agreed to discuss redeploying soldiers and the Palestinians pledged to “preempt terror.”

At his own news briefing, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel is prepared to consider ending the ban on Palestinians entering Israel if the Palestinian Authority acts decisively to stop extremist attacks.

“If they will do the proper thing, it can take a day or two days,” he said. “We don’t ask for 100% success, but we ask for a clear effort on their part--a visible, convincing effort--that they are really trying to stop terror.”

In fact, over the past week Palestinian security forces have uncovered and foiled some suicide bomb plots orchestrated by the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, according to U.S. officials.

Israel also pledged not to construct new settlements in the West Bank or confiscate land, another major point of dispute.

Besides Israel’s Peres, the delegations were led by Foreign Ministers Amir Moussa of Egypt and Karim Kabariti of Jordan and by Nabil Shaath for the Palestinians.