U.S. to Send Envoy for Mideast Talks
Stepping up U.S. mediation in a drive to close the gap between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on a West Bank accord, President Clinton is sending veteran envoy Dennis B. Ross to the region early next week.
Ross will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said U.S. officials accompanying Clinton on Thursday in Northern Ireland. The administration had stepped back from taking a prominent role to see whether the two sides could push towards agreement. They could not, and Ross will try again to mediate.
Clinton called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat after his summit with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Wednesday.
Netanyahu and Arafat asked Clinton to send Ross, said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry. Ross will spend a few days in the Middle East and report back to Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, McCurry said.
The U.S. is insisting that Israel yield a further 13% of the West Bank territory it won from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and turn it over to the Palestinian Authority.
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