Albright Seeks Arab Support for Mideast Plan

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright lobbied Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and other key Arab officials for support for a Middle East peace push as President Clinton prepared to see Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week.

Albright hoped Saturday to persuade Arafat to put his drive for Palestinian statehood into low gear.

“Our view is that it would be a mistake and not helpful for Chairman Arafat to make a unilateral statement” that he intends to set up a state on the West Bank and in Gaza, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said.

Arafat and the secretary met one-on-one in the 32nd-floor suite of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel that was Albright’s apartment when she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the first Clinton administration.

Albright also spelled out Washington’s hopes for a partial accord at successive meetings Friday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah; the foreign ministers of Syria, Algeria and Egypt; and Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, U.S. officials said.

This represents the new U.S. tactic of seeking to “lock in” whatever agreement is possible this week, while leaving other issues until later. Previously, U.S. officials have said nothing was settled until everything is settled.

The White House said Thursday that Clinton would meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and Yasser Arafat later in the week to try to break an 18-month impasse over a new Israeli troop withdrawal.

Albright was to meet Netanyahu Saturday evening in New York after the prime minister attended a Broadway musical, “The Lion King,” with his family.

The United States is trying to bridge an impasse between Israel and the Palestinians over a U.S. proposal for an Israeli troop withdrawal from another 13% of the West Bank in return for tougher Palestinian moves against Muslim militants.

But U.S. officials also suggested they wanted Arab leaders to try to discourage Arafat from threatening to declare a Palestinian state in a U.N. speech Monday.