U.S. Seems to Back Israel on New ‘Circumstances’

Meeting near the site of recent gunfights between Israelis and Palestinians, the two sides resumed peace talks Sunday after Secretary of State Warren Christopher met separately with each and appeared to endorse the Israeli position that the violence created new “circumstances” for the negotiations.

Trying to salvage the peace process, the two teams and U.S. peace envoy Dennis B. Ross opened the low-level talks Sunday night at this dusty crossing between Israel and the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip. The meeting began with a discussion of procedural issues and was expected to resume with substantive negotiations today.

Christopher told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip that conditions on the ground remain dangerous and that President Clinton is seeking quick results from the negotiations here, which follow an emergency summit at the White House last week.

Christopher said their talks must be held “within the four corners” of signed peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians. But, referring to the recent unrest, he added, “It’s a practical agreement that can take into account the changed circumstances resulting from the tragic events.”

Israel is demanding tougher security measures as a result of the clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police officers 1 1/2 weeks ago that left at least 75 people dead and more than 1,000 wounded. The Palestinian position is that security arrangements were laid out in detail in the signed accords and that the only thing to discuss is implementation.

State Department officials rushed to correct the impression that Christopher was taking sides in the peace effort rather than mediating. They said the overriding message he had meant to deliver was that both sides must emerge from the talks as winners.

The Clinton administration wants to avoid a repetition of the situation after the Washington summit in which Israeli officials returned home gloating over their victory at not having made any concessions in response to the violence. Christopher appealed to both sides in private meetings not to negotiate in public and to avoid inflammatory statements that could trigger new violence.

Netanyahu said after his meeting with Christopher that Israel is not proposing to reopen the peace agreements but, “in the framework of the language of the agreement . . . to make necessary adjustments, particularly in the area of security.”

After his meeting with Christopher, Arafat responded: “We are committed to the peace process and will do our best from our side to push it forward. We hope the other side will be committed to the accurate implementation of what has been agreed upon.”

At the Erez talks, Israel’s team is headed by retired Gen. Dan Shomron, a former army chief of staff, and the Palestinians, by Saeb Erekat, their minister for local government.

On Israeli television, Erekat warned, “We will not reopen signed agreements, and there will be no modifications of signed agreements.”

Israel plans to ask the Palestinians to collect illegal or unregistered weapons from their people and to discipline police officers who shot at Israeli soldiers during the riots that broke out after Israel opened an archeological tunnel in Jerusalem’s Old City near Al Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites of Islam.

Additionally, Israel wants new security measures to prevent any further firing on Israeli soldiers stationed in the West Bank and to protect Jewish settlers living there. Israeli negotiators will demand the establishment of buffer zones between Palestinian police officers and Israeli soldiers and that the Palestinian officers carry pistols instead of automatic weapons in some areas of joint operations, particularly where the two sides have already clashed.

The Palestinians want the Israelis to agree to withdraw their troops from Hebron, the last West Bank city still under Israeli occupation. Israel had agreed to pull back from Hebron in March, but the government of former Prime Minister Shimon Peres delayed the redeployment after a wave of suicide bombings by militant Islamists in February and March left more than 60 people dead in Israel.

Palestinian negotiators also plan to raise the issues of the Israeli military closure of Palestinian-ruled areas; the operation of a Palestinian airport in the Gaza Strip’s Dehaniya area; the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails; and the Old City tunnel.

Moreover, the Palestinians want a timetable for implementing the rest of the accords--the first of which was signed in 1993--including final negotiations over Jewish settlements, Jerusalem and Palestinian statehood. The Palestinians want eastern Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, as the capital of an independent state.

Netanyahu’s stance against Palestinian statehood and against any concessions on Jerusalem angered many Palestinians, who felt he was preempting final-status negotiations. The frustration created fertile ground for the outbreak of riots.

The negotiating teams are expected to break into two groups to discuss the Hebron redeployment and security issues.

Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu made it clear in a meeting with members of parliament from his right-wing Likud Party that the two issues would be linked in light of the Palestinian police officers’ firing on Israeli soldiers.

“It is unimaginable that there will be progress with such a sensitive [peace] agreement without correcting this basic violation and without necessary steps and arrangements on the ground to prevent this grave violation from reoccurring,” he said.

Miller reported from Erez, and Wright is traveling with the secretary of state.