WASHINGTON, January 22: United States President Bill Clinton, assuming a more active role in West Asia peace negotiations, failed to score a breakthrough with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their intensive talks at the White House, according to US officials.But officials are still hopeful that a new approach -- which calls for a phased withdrawal by Israeli forces from at least 10 per cent of West Bank territory which they now control -- may be sufficient to get the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians back on track. Palestine Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat is due to meet Clinton at the White House today.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who participated in more than three hours of meetings between Clinton and Netanyahu on Tuesday, told reporters, ``I think we are in the process of setting the stage for hard decisions.''
Netanyahu stuck to his hard line at a news conference yesterday but did not rule out the possibility that progress could be made. ``I think
we've narrowed some of the gaps, but we still have a way to go,'' he said.
Netanyahu, who spent much of his visit here since Sunday meeting Republican and Evangelical Christian leaders who are strongly opposed to Clinton's policy, said he had no plans to stay in Washington to see Arafat.
Despite efforts to keep the substance of the talks with Netanyahu under wraps, it appears that the administration has put forward a number of proposals to break the deadlock which has frozen the Oslo peace process for almost a year. In doing so, Washington, and Clinton in particular, appear to be assuming a more active role.
The Oslo agreement and subsequent accords required Israel to make a series of withdrawals from West Bank territory after handing over control of its main urban centres, which was completed one year ago when the PA took over most of Hebron. The so-called Hebron Protocol called for a subsequent three-stage Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank's rural areas between March 1997 and mid-1998.
But less
than six months before the deadline for the three withdrawals expires, none has yet taken place.
Before the meetings here this week, the Clinton administration had pushed the Israelis hard for a ``significant and credible'' withdrawal -- defined as between 10 and 12 per cent -- in the shortest possible time.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
