Jordanian King Visits W. Bank to Back Arafat

King Hussein offered a dramatic gesture Tuesday in support of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, as the Jordanian monarch made his first public visit to the West Bank in almost 30 years to discuss the troubled Mideast peace process.

Hussein, the first Arab leader to travel to this autonomous Palestinian area, said his landmark visit was intended to help speed the pace of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over Israel’s overdue withdrawal of its troops from the West Bank city of Hebron. But the king, who has been critical of Israeli delays in the Hebron redeployment, said he was not trying to pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The problem lies in the slow pace of implementing what has been agreed upon,” Hussein said at a news conference with Arafat.

Arafat and Hussein--whose relationship has often been stormy--addressed each other warmly Tuesday as they stood at neighboring lecterns, praising each other for their efforts for peace. They also were united in their insistence that Israel should move quickly on the issue of Hebron.

“We have one position,” Arafat said, looking toward the king. “We have a complete understanding that there should be the implementation of everything that has been agreed upon.”

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The king’s visit came as negotiations over Hebron reached a critical stage. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held another round of intensive, small-group discussions in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Tuesday, and formal negotiations were expected to resume soon, perhaps as early as today in the Egyptian resort of Taba. But the two sides offered differing accounts of their progress.

Arafat’s own assessment was gloomy.

“Until this point, there is no move forward in the negotiations,” he told reporters at his headquarters in this dusty desert town. “We don’t ask the impossible. We want what was signed to be implemented on the ground.”

Several Israeli officials and others close to the negotiations were more optimistic. While some differences remained, these sources said, the two sides were making progress toward reaching a diplomatic formula that would resolve Israel’s security concerns while meeting Palestinian demands that the existing Hebron agreement not be renegotiated.

Israel was scheduled to pull its troops out of most areas of the city in March, but it delayed the withdrawal after a series of suicide bombings in Israel by Muslim extremists.

Netanyahu, who inherited the Hebron agreement when he was elected prime minister in May, has said that he plans to put it in effect--but only with more security measures to protect about 450 Jewish settlers who live in the overwhelmingly Arab city. The Palestinians have said the agreement already provides safeguards to protect the settlers.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy was perhaps the most upbeat Tuesday.

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“The agreement, in terms of the understandings, is nearly closed,” he told Israeli television. “There is maybe still 10% left.”

David Bar-Illan, Netanyahu’s spokesman, also said substantial progress had been made in recent days on what he called the “practical, technical level,” but he said he believes the Palestinians are deliberately stalling on reaching an overall agreement.

“On the strategic level, we feel now there are brakes being applied by Arafat,” he said. “It seems to be a tactic on his part, which we’ve seen before, a feeling that we are in a hurry to close an agreement, so he tries to slow things down, probably to try to gain concessions.”

Bar-Illan declined to specify the sticking points. But other sources said one area of great disagreement remains a demand by Israel that it be allowed not only to pursue suspects into Palestinian-controlled areas but to initiate security operations within those zones.

At his news conference, Arafat seemed exasperated with what he termed repeated Israeli demands for increased security arrangements for Hebron’s Jewish settlers.

And, in a suggestion quickly dismissed by Israeli and U.S. officials, he said that, if it would calm Israel’s fears, he would be willing to accept an international military force, including U.S. troops, in Hebron.

“They [Israelis] are repeating, ‘Security, security,’ ” Arafat said. “I said, ‘OK, if you don’t trust the joint patrol units and you don’t trust your soldiers or our soldiers, OK, why not call upon an international presence with the participation of the American army?’ ”

Bar-Illan said the suggestion was greeted in the prime minister’s office with “astonishment.”

In Washington, Defense Secretary William J. Perry, who was preparing to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordecai, told reporters that there was no “active consideration” being given to the idea of an international force, with U.S. troops, in Hebron.

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The Jordanian king’s decision to fly Arafat back to the West Bank followed two days of talks between the two in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Although there have long been rumors of secret, peacemaking trips by Hussein, Tuesday marked his first public visit to the West Bank since Jordan lost it to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Hussein made it clear in his comments that he had relinquished all claim to the West Bank and accepted Palestinian rule there, saying he was happy “to be on Palestinian land.”