Albright Optimistic About Arab-Israeli Peace

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, winding up a weeklong trip to the Middle East, said Monday that Israelis and Palestinians have begun to repair their tattered relationship, with each side making small gestures that could restart the stalemated peace process.

“We are moving in the right direction,” Albright told reporters aboard her aircraft on the way home from an exhausting round of talks in which she played her own version of good cop/bad cop, alternately stroking and attacking Arabs and Israelis.

She said she was encouraged by resumed Palestinian-Israeli cooperation on security matters and by the Israeli government’s decision to release some impounded Palestinian tax revenues.

Albright’s assessment of her own efforts was far more upbeat Monday than it was Friday, when she said her trip resulted in “small steps . . . when big steps are needed.” She also softened her earlier declaration that she was determined not to “tread water” with repeated fruitless trips to the strategic region.

“You can be assured that I’m going to be absorbed in this,” she said. “I do not consider shuttle diplomacy to be treading water. . . . I will be prepared to go if I see I can make a difference by going. . . . If I can’t make a difference, I’m going to concentrate on what is happening in Cambodia, NATO expansion, Bosnia, China and Russia. The U.S. responsibilities are so large that I can’t be occupied by this full time.”

Albright delayed her departure from the region for a previously unannounced four-hour trip to Beirut marked by tight security measures, including a breakneck 15-car motorcade shadowed by two sport-utility vehicles armed with machine guns. The objective was to thwart terrorists, but the speeding vehicles produced their own brand of terror as they careened through the streets.

Albright’s trip to Beirut came a month after she ended restrictions--imposed during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war--limiting the use of U.S. passports for travel to Lebanon. She said Monday that she still considers the country dangerous for Americans but that she had decided that travel there should no longer be illegal.

With her security advisors apparently calling the shots, Albright repeatedly refused to say in advance that she would add Lebanon to her itinerary of Israel, the West Bank, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Before her party left Amman, the Jordanian capital, on Monday morning, the State Department issued a bogus schedule showing a direct return to the United States. Instead, she flew to Larnaca, Cyprus, where she, a reduced staff and a small press pool flew in three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to the landing zone at the hilltop U.S. Embassy.

Despite the cloak-and-dagger secrecy, Albright was following a now well-worn path. Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and James A. Baker III both slipped into Lebanon under heavy security.

Albright conferred with Lebanese President Elias Hrawi, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Foreign Minister Faris Bouez. She also made a speech to an audience of business, religious and civic leaders.

In her speech, Albright said the U.S. supports a Lebanon that is “fully independent, unified and sovereign, free from all foreign forces.” But she did not say how Washington expected Lebanon to achieve those objectives. Syrian troops are stationed in much of the country, Israel claims a swath of southern Lebanon as a “security zone” and the divisions left over from the war render the country far from unified.

Nevertheless, Albright said, “Your recovery from a period of disintegration should be instructive for other strife-torn regions such as Bosnia and the Caucasus.”

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Turning to the results of her diplomacy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Albright said: “We have at least agreed to talk further about talks. In the absence of a peace elevator, we are methodically taking the stairs.”

In her airborne news conference, Albright seemed extremely pleased by King Hussein of Jordan’s characterization of her style.

“There is something fresh in the air, there is something new in the air--one who speaks the truth, not diplomatically but accurately,” the monarch said Sunday during a joint news conference with Albright. Hussein and some other Arab leaders praised the secretary of State for an “even-handed” approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In a way, Albright was even-handed with each of her primary audiences. She assured Israelis that “we are with you” in fighting terrorism but also urged them to stop expanding settlements, confiscating land, demolishing houses and withholding Palestinian tax money. To the Palestinians, she expressed sympathy for their political aspirations but chided them for failing to act boldly to stop terrorism. She also called on other Arab countries to support the Israeli-Palestinian talks.

“I think it’s very hard to work on rebuilding confidence if the parties do not know specifically what is expected of them or if too rosy a picture is painted or if there is denial of certain facts,” she said.