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Albright Joins Mideast Talks Amid Reports Of Progress And Crisis
by Matthew Lee
WASHINGTON (AFP) – U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joined Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in their fourth day of talks here Friday amid mixed signals about progress in forging a peace agreement.
Despite reports in the region of substantial headway on key issues made in the talks here, Palestinian officials were decidedly pessimistic, and violence flared anew in the West Bank and Gaza, leaving at least four people dead.
Albright met with the negotiators for nearly two hours at Bolling Air Force Base in southeast Washington - where they have been ensconced under a news blackout since Tuesday, officials said.
"The secretary met with the sides trilaterally and bilaterally," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.
"They had very serious discussions and she heard assessments from each side on where they are and where they need to go," he said, refusing to characterize the mood of the meetings.
The Israelis and Palestinians are expected to leave Saturday evening, Reeker added.
The status of the talks was uncertain and a meeting between the two sides, Albright and President Bill Clinton that had earlier been described as "likely," then downgraded to "possible," was eventually scrapped.
But White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Clinton might meet with the teams before they depart on Saturday.
"We hope that the parties redouble their efforts and do everything they can to help find a way to end the violence and to narrow their differences," he said.
Earlier, Palestinian officials described the talks as in crisis, in stark contrast to other reports that spoke of significant new offers being made by the Israeli side.
Speaking in Gaza, an advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said reports of progress were incorrect.
"It is not accurate what has been said about progress," he said. "There was not serious progress up until this point. It is still too early to talk about progress."
Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Palestinian delegation at Bolling, was quoted in an Arabic newspaper as saying the talks were in a "hard crisis and there has not been progress on any issue."
U.S. officials would not characterize the atmosphere at the talks, but stressed that the discussions had not broken off.
"Obviously, these are tough issues and it can get tense," said one State Department official. "But the bottom line, no matter what any of these reports say, is that they are still in there and talking."
Clinton, who leaves office on January 20th, is anxious to seal a deal before the end of his term and has reportedly suggested January 10th as a date for a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat.
In a Wednesday meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, Clinton laid out "parameters" of a possible agreement that included suggestions on bridging gaps between the two sides on the most sensitive issues dividing them, Ben Ami said.
After meeting separately and together with U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross all day Thursday, the negotiating teams worked into the night hashing out various scenarios that could lead to agreement on the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, officials said.
As the talks continued Friday, though, violence that has wracked the region since late September erupted again with a suicide bomber killing an Israeli man in a restaurant and the deaths of at least two Palestinians, one shot by a Jewish settler and another killed by Israeli soldiers.
Washington has made ending the violence a priority and the State Department official said if it could be quelled and enough progress made towards outlining a peace deal, a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories by a senior U.S. official could occur as early as Wednesday.
"The most likely scenario, depending on progress, would be that someone would travel to the region next week," the official said.
Albright, Ross or national security adviser Sandy Berger are all possible candidates to make such a trip, but the Washington Post reported Friday that Berger was the preferred choice.
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