Netanyahu, Arafat Agree to Meet Clinton Next Month

LONDON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat agreed Thursday to meet next month in Washington with President Clinton for talks the U.S. hopes will nudge the Middle East antagonists toward breaking their deadlock.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s announcement that Clinton will meet separately with the two followed her talks Thursday with Netanyahu in Paris and Arafat in London that she admitted had failed to settle the disputes that have brought the peace process to a virtual standstill.

“The president and I care deeply about the cause of Middle East peace and are making every effort to overcome the existing crisis of confidence and restore momentum to the pursuit of peace,” Albright told a news conference.

A senior State Department official said later: “Our working assumption is that Netanyahu and Arafat would not agree to come to a meeting with the president unless they had thought long and hard about the next steps.”

Thursday’s meetings marked the third time in just over a month that Albright met Netanyahu and Arafat in separate European cities in an effort to end the impasse that has blocked Israel’s promised withdrawal from additional territory in the West Bank. So far, she has been unable to announce much progress.

“These are complicated issues, and gaps remain between the Israelis and Palestinians,” she said.

The decision to bring Clinton into the process marked a sharp reversal of White House tactics. In November, Netanyahu visited the United States, but Clinton refused to see him. Although Clinton denied this week that he had meant to snub the Israeli leader, officials have said that the president did not want to meet again with Netanyahu until the Israeli government showed more willingness to compromise.

When Albright scheduled Thursday’s meetings with Netanyahu and Arafat, she challenged the Israeli leader to bring a “credible” withdrawal plan to the table. But with the Israeli Cabinet deadlocked over the issue, U.S. officials conceded that Netanyahu was unable to meet that challenge.

Officials said no date has been set for the White House meetings. Mindful of protocol, Albright said only that she will “recommend” that Clinton host the meeting and that Netanyahu and Arafat had accepted the idea “in principle.” But aides said there is no doubt the talks will take place.

Albright said that before the Washington meeting, Israeli and Palestinian leaders will have to come to grips with the issues that have blocked progress in the peace process for most of this year. That means the Palestinians must do more to prevent terrorist attacks in Israel and the Israelis must decide on a plan to turn more of the West Bank over to Palestinian control.

“1997 was not a good year for the peace process,” Albright said. “I hope the leaders understand that they will have to make some very tough decisions to make sure that 1998 will be a good year.”

Despite Albright’s assessment of Thursday’s talks, Netanyahu called the meeting in Paris “comprehensive and useful.” As he has done frequently in the past, Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of breaching their obligations under 1995 interim accords negotiated in Oslo.

Asked where the process goes from here, Netanyahu said: “We’ll have a ‘next-step mechanism,’ but I prefer to discuss it with my Cabinet colleagues [before making it public].”

Netanyahu also said the next step will be impossible to take until “the Palestinians begin to fulfill rather than violate commitments they have undertaken.”

For his part, Arafat said he gave Albright a Palestinian security plan intended to meet Israel’s objections.

“We are passing through a very dangerous moment, a very delicate moment, a very important moment in history,” Arafat said in London.

Israel still fully controls about 73% of the West Bank and has security control over all but about 3%. While Israel has been saying it would relinquish an additional 6% to 10% of the West Bank, the U.S. has been pressing for a redeployment that begins in the double digits. The Palestinians have demanded 30% of the territory in the next stage.