U.S. Holds Talks With Israelis and Palestinians

U.S. mediators met separately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators Tuesday in a last-chance effort to find a solution for the continuing Middle East violence and restore the momentum toward a peace agreement before President Clinton leaves office.

The talks, held under tight security at an Air Force base in Washington, face extremely long odds after 12 weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence that have left more than 325 people dead, about 85% of them Palestinians.

But Clinton and peace envoy Dennis B. Ross decided to make a final attempt to revive a peace process that had been the crowning foreign policy achievement of the president’s tenure.

Israeli and Palestinian delegations agreed to the Washington talks to take advantage of the final month of Clinton’s administration. Although U.S. presidents dating back to Richard Nixon have played a role in Middle East negotiations, both sides are concerned that President-elect George W. Bush will have too many other things on his plate to devote much time to the Middle East, at least for a while.

Although nothing is scheduled beyond meetings with Ross and his deputy, Aaron Miller, the State Department said it expects that the talks will progress to three-way meetings of Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. delegations.

Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are expected to join the talks before they end, State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said.

“It’s a hopeful first step,” Reeker said of the meetings. “But obviously, the violence has to stop as well, and we’ve called upon both sides to take every measure possible to reduce violence.”

The meetings are expected to end by sundown Thursday, when the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins.

As he arrived in Washington, Palestinian delegation leader Saeb Erekat told reporters, “To be honest with you, with all that’s going on now, I do not have high expectations.”

Israeli negotiator Gilead Sher said, “We don’t have very high expectations, but we do think that if we have a chance, we have to try and exploit it now.”

Reeker said the talks are being held at Bolling Air Force Base on the Potomac River in southeastern Washington. The administration uses that site, which can be sealed off and which offers sleeping and dining facilities, when it wants to avoid contact between the negotiators and the media.

Ross has been Washington’s point man in Arab-Israeli negotiations for 12 years, going back to the administration of Bush’s father. But he has said he plans to step down when the new administration takes office.

Although Ross has been unable to broker a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, his tenure has been marked by some remarkable advances, including a formal peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the second country after Egypt to make peace with the Jewish state. Twelve years ago, there were no direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials. And there had never been direct negotiations between Israel and Syria.

Ross met with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Morocco last week and said he came away with the impression that the Palestinians were ready to find a way to end the violence and resume the peace process.