Clinton, Arafat Discuss Palestinian State

President Clinton met with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat alone for an hour Tuesday in an attempt to persuade him not to declare a Palestinian state on May 4, the date set by the 1993 Oslo accords to conclude the peace process.

Clinton told Arafat that such a unilateral action could undermine the political climate, particularly coming two weeks before hotly contested Israeli national elections.

But the White House also offered the Palestinians no assurance that the U.S. would take actions on their behalf in exchange for deferring an announcement, according to senior administration officials.

Arafat had been hoping for U.S. intervention in shaping what will happen during the political and legal vacuum likely to occur once May 4 passes. The Palestinians are concerned that an agreement to delay a declaration of statehood could lead to an open-ended process of negotiations with Israel.

The best the Palestinian Authority may be able to hope for is U.S. agreement eventually to back a new target date or target period for concluding peace talks, according to those close to the negotiations.

Arafat is under mounting pressure at home to make tangible gains before the interim agreement expires--a goal that U.S. officials now concede is virtually impossible.

“I can tell you that May 4 is very soon and I don’t think anybody thinks we’re going to solve the permanent status issues by May 4,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said Tuesday.

A declaration of Palestinian statehood also might end up helping the current hard-line Likud government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu win the May 17 elections--and receive a new mandate that would make peace negotiations even more difficult.

Arafat called the talks with Clinton and other U.S. officials “constructive.”

“The most important thing that came out is that, despite all the difficulties and obstacles we face today, President Clinton has shown me the determination to protect, to preserve and to move forward the peace process,” he told reporters.

U.S. officials also went out of their way Tuesday to acknowledge the Palestinian Authority’s cooperation with Israeli security in foiling a possible bombing in Tel Aviv.

In a joint operation, Israel and the Palestinian Authority uncovered a significant cache of explosives smuggled into Tel Aviv from Palestinian territory, U.S. officials said. Several members of the militant Islamic group Hamas have been arrested in recent days, Israeli television reported Tuesday.