Paris Talks to End Strife in Mideast Break Down

Israeli and Palestinian leaders failed early today to reach agreement on a U.S.-brokered exit from the region’s deadliest violence in years, fueling fears that bloodshed that has raged for seven straight days will continue unchecked.

Contentious talks that lasted a day and a night in Paris broke down over details of an agreement that a French official had said was “90%” completed. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak reportedly decided to head home, having concluded that there was no point to continuing.

Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, in on-again, off-again and sometimes angry talks, tentatively agreed late Wednesday that Israel would withdraw its army units to their positions before unrest broke out last week, Israeli sources at the talks said. They also agreed that the parties would call for an end to the violence.

But Arafat was insisting that an international inquiry look into the violence of the past week, which has killed more than 60 people, most of them Palestinians. Israel adamantly refused, and the talks collapsed.

“Arafat has refused to sign the text of the agreement that has been prepared by the two parties,” an Israeli official told reporters in Paris early today.

The official said Barak thought it was pointless to continue talks in Egypt, where a formal signing of the agreement had been expected, since “negotiations have arrived at an impasse.”

Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the deadlock. Israeli officials said earlier Wednesday that they would allow U.S. experts to join in an investigation of the week’s violence but thought an international inquiry led by the United Nations or by other countries would be biased against the Jewish state.

The talks, in various configurations, were hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the official residence of U.S. Ambassador Felix Rohatyn and at the Elysee Palace with French President Jacques Chirac.

Albright held separate meetings with Barak and Arafat after they flew to the French capital, then brought the two Middle East leaders together for a three-way session.

At one point, CIA Director George J. Tenet and U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis B. Ross were called in to participate, U.S. officials said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan took part in the gathering at the French presidential palace.

Albright’s ultimate goal is to revive the overall peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians--which has stalled since talks failed at Camp David in July--with the hope of achieving a settlement before the Clinton administration leaves office in January.

However, the current wave of Arab unrest and the Israeli police and military response have so damaged chances of arriving at a broad settlement that the sides were struggling in Paris just to find a commonly acceptable formula to stop the bloodshed.

The violence began last Thursday after Ariel Sharon, head of the right-wing Likud Party in Israel and a hated figure among Arabs, paid a high-profile visit to the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. The precinct encloses two mosques, including Al Aqsa, one of the holiest sites in Islam, and Sharon’s presence was seen by Muslims as an insult.

Senior French officials had said earlier Wednesday that the plan was to achieve enough progress here to make possible a formal signing of an agreement today after further talks at Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik.

According to the French, Israeli generals already were ordered Wednesday night to withdraw the army units to positions held before the unrest broke out, to minimize the chances of further casualties. However, there was no immediate confirmation of that from Israeli officials.

In Israel and the Palestinian territories, meanwhile, the day opened quietly, almost as if people were waiting to see what would happen in Paris. But by late afternoon, clashes again erupted in the usual spots--in the Gaza Strip around the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Ramallah.

Israeli helicopter gunships again attacked buildings near an army post not far from Netzarim that supposedly came under attack from the Palestinians. One boy was killed, one of six Palestinians who lost their lives in fighting Wednesday.

In the Israeli city of Jaffa, where many Arabs live, more violence flared. Arab demonstrators attacked television crews and beat an Italian journalist.

Israeli officials again demanded that Arafat pacify the streets, something they do not think he is doing.

“The Israeli army sees no evidence that the Palestinian Authority is determined to stop the violent unrest that has spread throughout the region,” a military statement said.

In Lebanon, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, head of the country’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, called on Palestinians to wage a holy war against Israel, and to strike at “the breasts of Zionists, soldiers and settlers.” And in northern Israel, a large forest fire was burning, one of more than 100 blazes in recent days that Israeli police blame on Arab arsonists.

In Paris, the stern rhetoric after the Palestinian and Israeli leaders arrived for talks showed how much at loggerheads they had become.

Arafat condemned “the virulent attacks against our people” by Israeli soldiers and police, and said he would meet with Barak only if Palestinians’ safety is guaranteed and an agreement reached on an international investigation.

In unflinching remarks to reporters after he met earlier in the day with Chirac at the Elysee Palace, Barak in turn placed the blame for the death and suffering squarely on Arafat.

“We hold Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority responsible for the initiation of this wave of violence,” Barak said. “I call upon our friends in the region and our Palestinian neighbors to muster the courage [to] stop this violence.”

According to the Israeli prime minister’s office, in a two-hour meeting with Albright, Barak also accused the Palestinians of breaking agreements with Israel by illegally procuring firearms and shooting at soldiers.

“The prime minister said at the meeting that cessation of violence is a precondition for any continuation of the negotiations, and asked Arafat to choose between the road to an agreement or the sliding down to violence, and that he [Arafat] carries the responsibilities for the results.”

One Palestinian source told reporters that the chemistry of the talks was “very bad.” U.S. officials accompanying Albright were being tight-lipped, even with other American diplomats.

Incensed at one point at the Israeli veto of an international inquiry, Arafat began to stalk out of the talks, according to Nabil Shaath, a top aide to the Palestinian leader. It was not known what Albright said to make Arafat change his mind.

One Palestinian official insisted to reporters that there can be no agreement on ending the unrest without Israeli acceptance of an international investigation.

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Dahlburg reported from Paris and Wilkinson from Jerusalem.