Arafat Seeks Clinton’s Aid to Revive Mideast Peace Talks

JERUSALEM — The latest U.S. attempt to restart deadlocked Middle East peace talks ended in failure Friday, and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat appealed to President Clinton to intervene personally in the crisis.

Arafat, in a letter to Washington, told Clinton that he was disappointed with the latest shuttle mission of U.S. special envoy Dennis B. Ross, and he underscored his frustration by initially refusing to meet with the mediator or take his calls.

He finally relented, meeting Ross in the West Bank city of Nablus just before the diplomat’s scheduled departure for Washington late Friday, but there was no breakthrough.

The Palestinians also canceled a Friday meeting with Israel on security issues, a session that had been expected to figure among the few concrete achievements of Ross’ nine-day mediation effort.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that Ross’ visit to the region had produced no progress, but in a statement he accused the Palestinians of trying to create an “artificial crisis” in a bid to heighten pressure on Israel.

A senior U.S. diplomat, however, said the difficulties are very real.

“It’s stuck,” the official said of the peace process. He said Ross is unlikely to return to the region until the two sides appear more willing to reach a compromise.

In the letter, Arafat thanked Clinton for his “tireless efforts” for Middle East peace but implicitly criticized Ross for focusing too much on the process and not enough on the substantive differences between the parties, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Arafat also asked Clinton to become personally involved to help “restore credibility and integrity to the peace process,” Erekat said.

Negotiations broke off in mid-March amid Palestinian anger over Israel’s decision to begin construction of a Jewish neighborhood in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem and Israeli accusations that Arafat had given Palestinian militants an indirect “green light” for violent attacks against Israel. Arafat has denied the allegations.

Since then, Ross and other intermediaries have been unable to persuade either side to compromise.

The Palestinians say they will not resume negotiations with Israel unless construction on the new neighborhood is stopped and a freeze is imposed on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel declines to take either action and says, in turn, that the Palestinians must resume comprehensive security cooperation before the political talks can be reopened.

After his 90-minute meeting with Arafat late Friday, Ross told reporters that he is convinced Palestinian and Israeli leaders share a desire to move forward with the peace process. “But we still have difficulties to overcome,” he said.

The low point of his visit may have come Wednesday, when he managed to bring together high-level Israeli and Palestinian officials to set an agenda for reviving the negotiations. The meeting was intended to help restore confidence between them but quickly backfired, deepening distrust and prompting Arafat’s letter to Clinton.

The session “may have been the worst they’ve had,” the senior U.S. official said.

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He said the Palestinians were especially upset when Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordecai refused to accept documents from them that detailed their complaints about Israeli settlement construction, confiscations of Arab-owned land and demolitions of homes built without permits.

Erekat said the Palestinians were also angered by the Israeli response to their call for a settlement freeze. “Mordecai told us, very coldly,” Erekat said, “they would continue building in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for the West Bank.

The Palestinian negotiator said he was stunned when Ross, who was participating in the meeting, remained silent after Mordecai’s statement. “I said to Dennis today, ‘Where is the American objection to the settlements?’ As far as we know, the U.S. position is still that settlements are illegal,” Erekat said. “Why didn’t he say anything?”

Since Israel broke ground on the housing project in East Jerusalem, the United States has reiterated its long-held position objecting to settlement expansion but has not pushed Israel for specific concessions.

Palestinian officials have criticized Ross for being too passive in his mediating role, relaying the concerns of each side to the other but proposing few initiatives of his own.

Israeli officials have praised his efforts, however, and have speculated that the Palestinians may wish to discredit Ross in order to force the Clinton administration to assign a new envoy to the region.