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Another Round At
The Negotiating Table
JAMES IJ BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
F
ollowing a four month
hiatus, the Mideast
peace talks resumed in
Washington this week
much as they ended in De-
cember — with personal
goodwill between many of the
negotiators, but with initial
procedural wrangling and al-
most no substantive progress.
Once again, there were
hints of a new flexibility by
Syria and Israel. There were
also indications that the
United States plans to play a
more active role in the talks
— although the exact nature
of that role remained murky.
The ninth round of bilater-
al talks began with an un-
precedented meeting between
U.S. Secretary of State War-
ren Christopher and the
heads of the negotiating
teams on Tuesday, the clear-
est sign yet of the new, "full
partnership" role claimed by
the new administration's for-
eign policy chief.
At that session, Mr.
Christopher urged the nego-
tiators to move beyond the
procedural maneuvering that
characterized earlier rounds.
It was the first time an Amer-
ican secretary of state had ac-
. tively participated in the
negotiations — a change in
the ground rules established
in Madrid in 1991 that ap-
parently satisfied all parties.
Early in the week, the Is-
raeli-Syrian negotiations
again appeared to be the
most promising track. During
those sessions, the Syrian del-
egation seemed to indicate a
subtle but important shift in
their negotiating position.
"We have taken note of the
fact that the Syrian delega-
tion is now using rather fre-
quently the term "full peace,"
said Itamar Rabinovich, Is-
rael's ambassador to Wash-
ington and the head of the
team negotiating with the
Syrians.
But although Israeli wel-
comed that change in termi-
nology, the phrase remains
imprecisely defined, Mr. Ra-
binovich said. Syria, he said,
still views "full peace" pri-
marily as an Israeli with-
drawal from the Golan
Heights, while Israel wants
assurances that the Syrians
are willing to talk about safe
and established borders,
diplomatic relations, the ex-
change of ambassadors and
.
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normalized trade relations.
"There is a problem in their
formulation, in the sense that
it is a very asymmetrical for-
mulation, and full peace has
remained rather vague," Mr.
Rabinovich said.
The first Israeli-Jordanian
session was "a very good
meeting," according to press
spokesman Yossi Gal. But
most observers expect those
discussions — and the talks
with the Lebanese delegation,
which also began amicably
but without substantive
progress — to take a back
seat to the critical Israeli-Syr-
ian talks and the difficult ses-
sions between Israelis and
Palestinians.
On the Palestinian front,
Israeli negotiators welcomed
the arrival of east Jerusalem
resident Faisal Husseini,
whose presence on the nego-
tiating team was part of the
U.S.-sponsored compromise
that ended the Palestinian
boycott protesting Israel's ex-
The Mideast peace
talks finally
reconvened this
week, amid hints
that Israel now
wants non-stop
negotiations.
pulsion of more than 400
Palestinians accused of ties
to radical Islamic movements.
In the past, the Israelis
had opposed inclusion of any
east Jerusalem resident in
the negotiating team to avoid
any implication that the sta-
tus of the capital was on the
bargaining table.
But in recent weeks, the
Rabin. government was con-
vinced by Washington that
Mr. Husseini's presence
would reinforce a Palestinian
negotiating team that is los-
ing its constituency to radical
Islamic groups. Several
Palestinian negotiators have
even reported threats on their
lives.
"One of the biggest prob-
lems with the negotiations on
the Palestinian front is the
weakness of the delegation,"
said a high-level Israeli offi-
PEACE TALKS page 12