Middle East Peace Deal Is in Sight, Clinton Says

A peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians “is within view now,” President Clinton said here Thursday as he announced that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will travel to the region next week to help narrow the differences.

The president exuded an optimism rare in the cautious world of Middle East diplomacy. He called on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to show “real courage and vision” and take steps they have been so far unwilling to take.

The president made his comments in a speech to U.S. Embassy employees after spending about 90 minutes with Barak. The president spoke with Arafat by telephone Wednesday afternoon.

The so-often stagnant peace process, though still stalled, has been rejuvenated in the past week and a half with the sudden withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after a 22-year presence. The response by the Hezbollah guerrilla movement there, which has celebrated the departure of what was seen as an occupying army, so far has been moderate.

Those developments, along with the private tenor of the talks the president has held, are at the heart of the relatively sanguine aura that has settled over the diplomacy.

“I know the differences between real negotiations and bull .... . These guys have entered into real negotiations,” a senior Clinton administration official who took part in the meeting Thursday said of the Israelis and Palestinians. “The two sides themselves are making it very clear that they’re prepared to do what they think is necessary to reach an agreement.”

But a central question remains: Can they translate intentions to reach an agreement into reality?

The sporadic negotiations are in the seventh year of what was envisaged as a three-year process set in motion in Oslo by Palestine Liberation Organization and Israeli negotiators. Under the latest timetable, the participants are working against a deadline of Sept. 13 for a final accord. They have missed their earlier deadlines to first settle on a framework for an agreement.

“This is tough work. If it were easy, somebody would have done it a long time ago. But, actually, it is within view now,” Clinton said Thursday, referring to the prospect of meeting the September deadline to complete an agreement.

The president said that in his conversation with Barak at the Dom Pedro hotel here, the Israeli leader “reaffirmed his intense commitment” to reach an agreement with the Palestinians. And, Clinton said, “I know from my own discussions with Chairman Arafat that he also shares this commitment and that he recognizes the real urgency of this moment to actually get back on the timetable and complete the work that has to be done.”

Israeli enthusiasm over the Clinton meeting and pending Albright visit was muted, reflecting a general pessimism over the pace of negotiations. The Israelis are hoping to focus pressure on Arafat, fearing that he will resist finalizing a deal because of the painful concessions it would require.

Despite reported progress in back-channel talks held until recently in Sweden, Barak earlier Thursday accused Arafat of procrastinating. It was the first time he has made such a charge publicly.

“I have to say that in recent days, in the past two weeks, there has been foot-dragging by the Palestinians,” the Israeli leader said. “I hope we will overcome this.”

Palestinian leaders made similar charges in response, questioning Israel’s determination and forthrightness in the negotiations.

Clinton has sounded optimistic about peace prospects before. In November, after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he said the two sides were beginning a sprint to complete a framework by February.

Albright is traveling in Europe this week with Clinton, on a trip that continued today in Berlin, goes to Moscow on Saturday and ends in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, on Monday. She will travel to the Middle East on Monday evening.

The next step, Clinton said, will be a visit soon by Arafat to Washington. That will be followed by another Middle East tour by Albright, a senior administration aide said. The goal is to convene the two sides in what could grow into a White House-sponsored Middle East summit.

But the basis for such a summit does not yet exist, the aide noted.

The calendar works both for and against Clinton--against him because Middle East negotiations never move quickly, and he has less than eight months left in office; for him because he is a known quantity to Barak, Arafat and other players such as Syrian President Hafez Assad. They would not have the same familiarity with Clinton’s successor.

The largest obstacles remain unchanged: the borders between Israeli and Palestinian lands, the future of Jewish settlements flourishing in lands occupied by Israel since its 1967 war with the Arabs, the treatment of Palestinian refugees, security arrangements and the future of Jerusalem.

Although talks on these issues have been taking place for about six months, negotiators have gotten down to “serious business” only within the last month or so, the senior administration official said.

Administration officials, from Clinton down, are emphasizing that the recent turn of events in the Middle East has created what they hope is the sort of moment that crystallizes into at least a brief window of opportunity.

“Moments don’t last forever. If they’re not seized upon, the consequences of not seizing upon them are usually pretty significant,” the senior aide warned. But, he said, Clinton saw in Barak “someone more convinced than ever that there is a moment that should be seized.”

“Chairman Arafat is coming from the same standpoint,” he added.

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Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.