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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 December 1999 Issue No. 459 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 December 1999 Issue No. 459
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Debate Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Staying in the race
In Egypt today for talks with top officials at the end of her five-leg Middle East trip, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright may not be in a position to announce a breakthrough regional peace-making, either on the bilateral or multilateral levels.While Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, particularly the final status talks, do not look set for a serious breakthrough, the Syrian-Israeli track may be a less frustrating front. Yet even on this track talks are unlikely to be resumed soon, despite a statement by Albright that she was "much more hopeful" following her visit to Damascus. And Egypt remains unwilling to change its position, opposing the resumption of multilateral talks in the absence of such progress.
Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, have indicated their willingness "to encourage peace-making". This entails encouraging the Syrians to go ahead with the resumption of talks on the basis of a proposed letter of intent from the Americans. It also calls for providing support to the Palestinian Authority in "making the hard decisions". In other words, Saudi Arabia may offer more financial aid to the Palestinians and Egypt may scale up its current "partial involvement" in the negotiations. "If the Palestinians and Israelis fail to get some real progress made by late January, then Egypt may host both President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for a closer mediation effort," a diplomatic source told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Egypt also renewed its commitment to host the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) conference on economic cooperation early next summer, provided no setbacks occur.
Albright arrived in Israel late Tuesday amid low expectations. She would have wanted to assist Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to agree on some points of the framework agreement that they are scheduled to come up with by mid-February, according to the Sharm Al-Sheikh deal. But no such luck. It was Israeli settlements and an Israeli-Palestinian fight over the implementation of an Israeli withdrawal from five per cent of occupied territories that consumed Albright's time while in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Actually, it was on Tuesday that chief Palestinian negotiator for the final status issues, Yasser Abed Rabbou, had effectively suspended all talks with the Israelis until and unless "adequate answers were given to the long-standing Palestinian demand to freeze all settlement construction for the duration of the final status talks".
On Monday, Israel issued a further 500 tenders for housing units in settlements, bringing, according to Israel's Peace Now Movement, the total of new tenders issued in the first five months of Barak's government to 3,196 -- higher than that of the Binyamin Netanyahu government. And, as Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat put it: This "is the largest settlement expansion since 1971".
Albright also had to worry about the ongoing dispute over the second phase of Israel's West Bank redeployment, now nearly a month overdue. She encouraged a Palestinian intention to back-pedal on the second redeployment in exchange for a more generous territorial transfer in the third redeployment.
It was in Syria that Albright got, according to a senior US official "new clarifications [from President Hafez Al-Assad] on important points which would now be passed on to Israeli Prime Minister Barak". These reportedly included the character and timing of a peace deal, water resources and security arrangements.
However, neither the Americans nor the Syrians seem to have anything to report about the Israeli response to Damascus's standing demand to resume talks on the basis of a promise the Syrians say was made by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to fully withdraw from the Golan Heights.
"It is a matter of time before it all happens," said one informed diplomatic source. He added, "It has become a one-way ticket situation; there may be bumps on the road, but all the parties concerned know they have to stay in the race."
Dina Ezzat in Cairo,
Graham Usher in Jerusalem,
Atef Saqr in Damascus
