Clinton Prods Arafat on Compromises for Peace

With a blunt warning that no side can ever get all it wants at the negotiating table, President Clinton on Thursday urged Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to refine his priorities for peace talks with Israel, concentrating on what is most important and preparing to compromise on the rest.

Clinton’s hourlong White House meeting with Arafat came less than a month before the Feb. 13 target date for Israel and the Palestinians to complete work on a “framework” agreement sketching a resolution for all the main points in a comprehensive peace treaty to be negotiated in detail later.

“In any process like this, there must be inevitable and difficult compromises,” Clinton told Arafat during a brief public session before their private meeting. “No one can get everything that either side wants.”

Although it might seem evident that negotiations require give and take, Clinton’s emphasis on the point underlined Washington’s growing frustration with the reluctance by the Israelis and Syrians, as well as the Palestinians, to compromise in U.S.-mediated peace talks that stalled just when they appeared to be on the brink of success.

Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed during a late-night summit this week to redouble their efforts to meet the February deadline for a framework accord, although both sides had previously said that was impossible. U.S. officials don’t consider the target date to be particularly important in itself, but they say the two sides must complete a framework soon if they hope to craft a final treaty before Clinton leaves office.

Israel, Syria and the Palestinians have made it clear that the U.S. president must be a party to any peace between them. All three sides realize that, unless they complete work during Clinton’s term, they will have to wait for months or years for his successor to develop a Middle East policy.

“We are determined to complete our endeavor of achieving the goals in a comprehensive peace during the tenure of President Clinton,” Arafat said as he left the White House. Administration officials said Arafat and Clinton talked privately for about 45 minutes.

Clinton pledged a maximum U.S. effort to help the sides narrow their differences. And he said he would be disappointed if Israel didn’t reach peace with both the Palestinians and the Syrians this year.

“I am convinced it’s possible for them to reach a comprehensive peace in a reasonably short period of time, and I’m going to do whatever I can to facilitate it,” Clinton said.

Arafat was invited to Washington earlier this month to give Clinton an opportunity to reassure him that the United States will remain engaged in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations despite the public focus on Barak’s recent high-level talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh in Shepherdstown, W. Va. When a procedural squabble forced an indefinite postponement of the Israeli-Syrian talks, which had been scheduled to resume Wednesday, attention returned to the Israeli-Palestinian track.

Before Arafat met with Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took the Palestinian leader to her Georgetown home for lunch. She underlined Clinton’s call for flexibility by both Israelis and Palestinians.

“It’s very important for both sides to look for flexible, practical ways to solve problems, and that a recognition that one cannot get 100% of one’s position is important,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. He said each side should concentrate on its “true needs.”

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, the newspaper Maariv said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have begun a new round of secret talks. There was no official confirmation.