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Arafat says peace talks with Israel are a waste of time |
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April 9, 2000
RAMALLAH, APR 8 (AP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Friday that peace negotiations with Israel are a waste of time and called for deeper U.S. intervention to pressure Israel to make concessions.
But a state department spokesman said no American proposals were expected at this point.
Negotiators opened a new round Friday in Washington in the talks they hope will bring a final peace agreement by Sept. 13. But the sides have been unable to achieve concrete results on the most contentious issues.
Arafat told his Cabinet in a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that Israel had not budged in the talks.
"It's necessary that the American side ... participate effectively because of the intransigent Israeli position, which is wasting time," Arafat said, according to official minutes of the meeting.
Israel "has made the negotiations revolve in empty circles without achieving any progress," Arafat said. He added that the top Israeli negotiator, Oded Eran, does not have a mandate to make decisions in the talks.
Barak's office said Friday that the negotiations are advancing well but flexibility is needed on both sides, Channel Two television reported. Government spokesmen were not available late Friday since the Jewish Sabbath began at sundown.
State Department spokesman James Rubin said earlier in the day that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had "an enormous amount of work" to do in the talks. "We're not at this stage where we think it's appropriate for us to impose or pressure either party to accept an American plan," he said.
Arafat compared Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to his hard-line predecessor in expressing his frustration with the pace of peace talks, Channel Two television reported Friday.
Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and Immigration Minister Yuli Tamir heard Arafat's complaints in a meeting at the leader's office in Ramallah on Tuesday, the TV said.
"Three years we wasted with Benjamin Netanyahu and now eight months we've wasted with Ehud Barak," Arafat told the ministers, according to the television. "We are very frustrated."
Spokesmen for Beilin and Tamir were not immediately available for comment on the report.
Israel has withdrawn from about 40 percent of the West Bank and most of the Gaza Strip as part of the peace process with the Palestinians, which began in 1993. The talks were largely stalled under Netanyahu's term, which ended with Barak's election last May.
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