Al-Ahram Weekly   Al-Ahram Weekly
11 - 17 November 1999
Issue No. 455
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 Issues navigation Current Issue Previous Issue Back Issues
 
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Killing the deadline

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak walked shoulder-to-shoulder, exchanged smiles and shook hands when the two met on the fringe of the Socialist International Conference in Paris on Tuesday. But the handshakes seemed to have lost the symbolic power captured in the endless photo opportunities that have occurred since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

This first meeting between Arafat and Barak since the opening of final status talks between Palestinian and Israelis in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday followed statements by Barak claiming that UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 did not apply to occupied Palestinian territories. Israel alone, Barak had clearly indicated, would define the scope of its expected withdrawal from occupied West Bank territory in accordance with unilaterally assessed security needs.

Underlining Egypt's continued involvement in peace efforts President Hosni Mubarak met separately with Arafat and Barak on Monday and Tuesday. He also met earlier with French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

Ali Maher, Egypt's ambassador to France, told reporters after taking part in the 45-minute meeting between Mubarak and Barak that Cairo's position on Resolution 242 was "clear and unchanged." In Egypt's view, Maher said, "this resolution is the basis of the peace process and the term of reference of negotiations which took place in Madrid and Oslo. Thus, its relevance and the necessity of its implementation on all negotiating tracks cannot be denied."

In Paris, and after making a by now standard reference to Barak as "my courageous partner", Arafat recalled in his address to the Socialist International Conference on Tuesday that the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had "accepted a compromise solution based on international legality and embodied in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 which call upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 in return for peace and security".

After affirming Palestinian demands that all Jewish settlements built in occupied territories over the past 30 years be dismantled, Arafat said that "nothing except the logic of injustice can legalise the continued existence of settlements in occupied Palestinian territories."

Barak told a news conference that references to borders in Resolution 242 meant established international boundaries with Syria and Egypt, and not the 1949 cease-fire lines with Jordan.

The first session of the final status talks reflected sharp differences between Palestinians and Israelis over the most fundamental and sensitive issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict, including Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements, water and borders.

The two-hour session of formal talks, in accordance with the Sharm Al-Sheikh agreement, aimed at mapping out an agenda for negotiations that both sides hope to wrap up within 10 months.

However, while the Ramallah talks were described by both parties as "practical and business-like", the policy statements delivered by the heads of the two delegations, underscored the wide gap between the two sides' perceptions and positions on virtually all outstanding issues.

Abd Rabbo demanded complete Israeli withdrawal to 4 June, 1967 borders: "Without the return by Israel of all land gained in 1967, including Jerusalem, our efforts will amount to no more than a deferral of crises." He reminded the Israeli delegation that the cause of the refugees was a matter of paramount importance to Palestinians.

For his part Odid Eran repeated a by now familiar mantra: Israel will not withdraw to the 1967 borders, Jerusalem will remain "Israel's united capital" and refugees will have to be re-settled in the countries where they now reside.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Ereikat said the Israeli position on Resolution 242 amounted to a "grave and scandalous mendacity". If 242 and 338 don't apply to the West Bank, then what are the terms of reference for the peace process?" he asked .

For his part, Eran said that Israel acknowledges that the two resolutions constitute the ultimate terms of reference for the peace process. However, "it is no secret that the two sides have different interpretations of the meaning of the two resolutions."

In view of the wide gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions, it seems unlikely that the talks will produce substantial results or that negotiators will be able to meet their deadline of September 2000. This, observers believe, may eventually lead to the opening of an alternative secret channel of negotiations involving Barak and Arafat.

Khaled Amayreh in Jerusalem and Mohamed El-Masri in Gaza

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