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July 9, 2000


Arafat prays with Palestinian leaders
AP Photo

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The future of Jerusalem looms as the potential deal-breaker in Tuesday's last-ditch summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at Camp David, Md.

But in preparations to confront that volatile issue, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is considering offering compromise concessions that would expand areas of the city already under Arab day-to-day control.

In a potential trade-off, described by two Israeli officials close to the prime minister, Israel would annex settlements just outside Jerusalem. But Yasser Arafat has his eye on east Jerusalem as part of a Palestinian state, as well as its capital.

An Israeli official said the question of Jerusalem is the one least likely to be resolved at the summit.


Barak speaks with reporters
AP Photo


 

 

Meanwhile, the White House said President Clinton would open the summit Tuesday in a meeting with Barak and Arafat. ``From there, they'll start meeting in different combinations and they'll just start working the issues, and the process will take care of itself,'' National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

He said Clinton would spend a substantial amount of time talking with the leaders individually and collectively. ``They'll pull in experts for the specific issues that are at stake here, and this is a process that I think they'll just define and will create its own dynamic as it moves forward,'' Crowley said.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will be there ``full-time,'' her spokesman, Richard Boucher, said Friday.

Albright also will participate as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepare an agenda at pre-summit talks in Washington Sunday.

While declining to set a deadline for the talks, the White House said Clinton would leave the country as planned July 19 for Okinawa, Japan and the annual summit of industrialized nations. He will return July 23.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said they had already discussed the possibility of a second summit, in August. But Clinton is hoping for an overall agreement after a few days' work.

Less progress has been made on Jerusalem than on any other issue in the negotiations leading up to the summit, Israeli officials said. By contrast, the two sides have made considerable headway on the question of how much land Israel will turn over to Arafat for a state, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Barak may not insist on retaining the strategic Jordan Valley, provided Israel can maintain a security presence there at least for some time, the officials said.

The unusual disclosure of Barak's likely stance on core issues appeared to be an effort to project him as a reasonable Israeli leader and to coax matching concessions from Arafat.

Publicly, the Palestinian leader is demanding transfer of virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — more land than Barak is prepared to relinquish. And Barak intends to keep Jerusalem united and Israel's capital, the officials said.

Clinton, who is on the record as supporting Palestinian ``aspirations,'' could step in.

On refugees, officials said Barak is willing to consider permitting tens of thousands of Palestinians to settle in Israel if they have family members there. The precedent is Israel's acceptance of 60,000 to 70,000 Palestinian Arabs in a program of reuniting families that was in force between Israel's founding in 1948 and the Mideast war of 1967, the officials said.

But, the officials said, Barak will not accept the idea they have a legal right to return.

Tens of thousands of today's refugees would be absorbed in the Palestinian state, while others would receive assistance under a worldwide funding campaign. The Palestinians, meanwhile, are floating the idea of $40 billion being raised through contributions.

Richard N. Haass, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, questioned the Mideast leaders' ability to ``negotiate compromises and sell them at home.''

Haas, a former State Department official, said the summit's most likely outcome is would be a partial accord, leaving unsettled details for the final days of the Clinton administration or its successor.


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