Israel Will Adhere to Pacts, Weizman Vows

Amid conflicting reports about whether there may be an agreement on the long-delayed Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli President Ezer Weizman on Monday promised Egypt’s leader that Israel will meet its obligations to the Palestinians under their signed peace accords.

Weizman offered Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak no timetable for action and conceded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has moved more slowly than some would like. “Better late than never,” said Weizman, who has used his largely ceremonial post to try to nudge the peace process forward and ease the tension that has developed between Israel and the Arab world.

As Weizman and Mubarak met in Cairo, there was a frenzy of diplomatic activity taking place in Israel and Jordan, with U.S. peace envoy Dennis B. Ross shuttling between Palestinian and Israeli officials to hammer out a plan for an Israeli pullback from Hebron, the last West Bank city under Israeli occupation.

Israeli chief negotiator Dan Shomron and his Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erekat, continued to meet into the night in Jerusalem, with the Palestinian later indicating to Israeli television that there had been no progress. But a more upbeat assessment came from Edward Abington Jr., the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, who said: “Things are going well. There are still some difficulties, but they are not insurmountable.”

Although Weizman’s trip to Cairo was coordinated with Netanyahu, the cordial two-hour meeting and lunch emphasized Mubarak’s recent snub of the Israeli prime minister.

Early this month, Mubarak refused to attend a Washington summit with Netanyahu called by President Clinton. The Egyptian repeated to a news conference Monday that he has no intention of meeting Netanyahu until Israeli troops withdraw from Hebron.

For his part, Weizman took pains to avoid appearing disloyal to Netanyahu. He said his role in Egypt was to “heal certain splits, which everyone sees, with the largest Arab country.”

He was noncommittal when asked if Netanyahu had miscalculated in deciding to excavate an archeological tunnel in Jerusalem. That act sparked violence that killed at least 75 and injured more than 1,000. “I am not here to analyze Mr. Netanyahu’s decisions,” Weizman said.

By inviting Weizman--whom he has known for 19 years--to Egypt instead of the prime minister, Mubarak was able to convey his support for the peace process while signaling his displeasure with Netanyahu and his policies.

Mubarak said he accepted the pledge given by Weizman that Israel would honor its agreements. He said he did not press for details because he understands that the accords are still being negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat. “I told [Weizman] that Egypt will continue to support the peace process as much as we can, until we reach a comprehensive settlement to the whole problem and until peace prevails all over the whole area,” Mubarak said.

While offering the Arab side little of substance, Weizman stressed Israel’s good faith. He said the road to peace could be rocky but that Palestinians and Israelis have no choice but to live with one another.

He disagreed with an Egyptian journalist who said Netanyahu has backtracked on agreements. “The government is not going back. The government perhaps has slowed down from what some people would like,” he said. Still, he added, “I am sure, as I said to President Mubarak, that the government . . . will do honestly all its best to achieve peace.”

The Hebron redeployment has become the chief sticking point between Israel and Palestinians, and for many Arabs it is an acid test of whether Netanyahu is sincere about continuing the peace process. The redeployment was scheduled for March but was postponed by the government of then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres after suicide bombings by Muslim extremists in February and March killed at least 60 people.

Since his election in May, Netanyahu has said he supports the peace process but insists that Israel must have more safeguards for 450 or so Jewish settlers who live among more than 100,000 Palestinians in Hebron. For their part, the Palestinians contend that the already signed accords provide sufficient security guarantees, and they say they do not want to renegotiate.

Meantime on Monday, Arafat traveled to Jordan to confer with King Hussein and win support for his stance on Hebron. Israeli and Jordanian officials said later that Hussein will visit the West Bank today when he gives Arafat a helicopter lift home to Palestinian-controlled Jericho. The visit is believed to be the king’s first public trip to the West Bank since Jordan lost the territory to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Hussein, once Netanyahu’s strongest Arab booster, has turned harshly critical recently, accusing the Israeli leader of deliberately stalling on the peace process and displaying “arrogance of power.”

Despite that criticism, an Israeli government official said the king telephoned Netanyahu on Monday to share his assessment of how the Israeli-Palestinian talks are proceeding.

A Jordanian official said late Monday that it is possible that a meeting could be held as early as today between Netanyahu, Arafat and Hussein--perhaps heralding a breakthrough on Hebron.

But Israeli officials downplayed that report. “I can tell you there is no meeting, no tripartite meeting and no quadripartite meeting,” said David Bar-Illan, Netanyahu’s political advisor. “There’s a good chance there will be one soon if all goes well, but there is no meeting planned yet.”

Hebrew University political scientist Avraham Diskin said the journey by Hussein may indicate more than the monarch’s and Arafat’s shared frustration over the slow pace of the peace process. “This may be an opportunity for the king to get more involved in the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, especially on the issue of Jerusalem,” Diskin said.