•
Washington Watch
State Still
Has Role
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
ith Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright finally
off to the Middle East,
after some last-minute
jockeying by Palestinians and Israelis,
the White House and State
Department shift to preparing for the
explosive "permanent-status" negotia-
tions.
Those talks, with the Wye
Agreement conditions seemingly under
way for now, will take up a host of
volatile issues that include Jerusalem,
settlements, refugees, water and the
nature of a Palestinian state.
Officials continue to insist that
they want the parties themselves to
negotiate with minimal American
involvement. That new, more aloof
position was implicit in the adminis-
tration's rejection of Palestinian pres-
sure to intervene in this week's talks
on Wye implementation.
But privately, administration offi-
cials conceded that the pressure to get
more directly involved would be
intense once final-status discussions
begin.
The first step likely will be negotia-
tions over an interim Declaration of
Principles playing out the goals and
procedures for the permanent-status
talks, said Joel Singer, one of the
architects of the original Oslo agree-
ment and now a Washington lawyer.
"You can't just sit down and start
writing a preamble and then work
your way from there until you get to
the signature block," Singer said.
"Before you get to that point you
have to start laying out general prin-
ciples."
Those preliminary talks, he predict-
ed, will take place in private, without
the diplomatic theatrics that have •
characterized the Wye implementation
discussions.
Israel hopes to finish a framework
agreement by January and to aim for
a December 2000 conclusion of a
final-status agreement.
"The president [Bill Clinton] has
made it clear that it's up to the par-
ties themselves to structure the nego-
tiations and work out agreements,"
said one administration official. "But
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Detroit Jewish News
27