U.S. Finds Itself on a Diplomatic Tightrope

With its signature foreign policy objective in tatters, the Clinton administration struggled Sunday to refurbish its credentials as a Middle East peace broker, trying to walk a thin line between conflicting claims of Israelis and Palestinians while urging both sides to “break the cycle of violence.”

In appearances on Sunday television interview shows, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and White House National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger insisted that the most important thing for Washington to do right now is retain its ties to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Albright seemed to echo Israel’s assertion that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat could stop the latest round of violence if he chose to do so.

“Yasser Arafat obviously is the leader of the Palestinian people,” she said. “He has been able in the past to control [similar uprisings]. We expect him to be able to control this.”

But an hour or so later, on CNN’s “Late Edition,” Albright exhibited some doubts about Arafat’s ability to call off angry bands of Palestinian youths.

“Yasser Arafat has made some very hard decisions in the last seven years, showing he wants the peace process to move forward,” she said. “I hate to begin to think that Yasser Arafat is not a partner [for peace]. . . . He needs to regain control over what is going on.”

Albright’s debate with herself highlighted the administration’s difficulty in coming to grips with the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in years. Both Albright and Berger expressed sympathy for Israelis who feel “besieged” by Palestinian stone throwers, although both acknowledged that most of the deaths have been suffered by Palestinians facing Israeli live fire.

Albright and Berger said the United States did not veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel for using excessive force to avoid an outright rupture of Washington’s relationship with the Palestinians and their supporters. The U.S. abstained when the council voted 14 to 0 for the resolution late Saturday night.

“We have to look at the whole picture here,” Albright said. “This was not an easy decision, believe me, but I think vetoing it would have created problems, further problems in the region for us as the honest broker and negotiator.”

The vote--which drew a protest from the Israeli government--immediately became an issue in the presidential election campaign. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), acting as a surrogate for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, said on the ABC program “This Week” that the United States should have vetoed the resolution. “It was not an act of courage to abstain.”

But Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, said on CNN: “Look, the United States is the only country in the world that has the capacity to negotiate with parties on all sides in the Middle East. . . . To veto, I think, would have broken some of the lines of communications that we are going to need in this crisis.”

In a series of phone calls with Middle East leaders Sunday, President Clinton proposed hosting a summit later this week with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat, possibly at a European venue. It was one of several ideas discussed that aides are now working on.

A senior administration official said Clinton also spent a “great deal of time” Sunday working on the Lebanon-Syrian side of the crisis involving the capture of three Israeli soldiers by Islamic guerrillas based in Lebanon.

In a tough half-hour discussion with Syrian President Bashar Assad, the president stressed that Syria has a “unique role in Lebanon and therefore unique responsibilities” in dealing with the fate of the three soldiers, the official said. “He implored him to use Syria’s influence to get the three released quickly and unharmed,” the official said.

According to news agency reports from Damascus, the Syrian capital, Assad bluntly told Clinton that Israel was solely at fault for the latest outbreak of violence.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin also telephoned Assad on Sunday, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov planned to visit Damascus for meetings there today with Syrian officials. He planned to go later to Lebanon.

The Russian diplomacy seemed to renew Moscow’s position as a supporter of the Arab cause in the Middle East conflict.

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Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.