Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Hurried half-measures

By Nevine Khalil

The emergency Sharm Al-Sheikh summit spanned 25 hours of nearly continuous diplomacy, haggling, negotiations and arguments on Monday-Tuesday. But there were no handshakes, no smiles and no signing ceremony. The outcome was a commitment by Israelis and Palestinians to end the violence that wreaked havoc on the occupied territories since 28 September. And "implementation" was what the participants -- President Hosni Mubarak, US President Bill Clinton, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and EU High Commissioner Javier Solana -- hoped for.

The Palestinians and Israelis agreed to call for an end to the clashes which have left over 120 dead and 3,000 injured, mostly Palestinians, the formation of a US-led fact-finding mission to investigate the causes of the violence and a meeting in two weeks in Washington to review progress and possibly relaunch the deadlocked peace negotiations. "The purpose here was not to forge an agreement [but] was geared towards very practical steps," said a high US administration official.

Descriptions of the outcome were mixed, depending on who was talking. A grinning Barak told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was satisfied with the outcome of the summit. "Oh yes," he said as he left the conference centre, but Arafat worried about whether the Israelis will stick to their side of the bargain. "We expect [Barak] to implement exactly what we agreed upon," said Arafat on his return to Gaza. Clinton's view was that in order to "rebuild confidence and trust, we must all do our part; avoiding recrimination and moving forward." Mubarak conceded that "the results do not measure up to our peoples' expectations, but they could be the basis for achieving peace." Mubarak will brief Arab leaders on Sharm Al-Sheikh in detail at the Arab summit opening in Cairo on Saturday.

A statement by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the promised cease-fire, saying that "silencing the guns is a real achievement." He noted, albeit prematurely, that the Palestinian and Israeli leaders have "stepped back from the abyss and renewed their commitment to resolve their differences by peaceful means." Solana told the Weekly that while "not everybody is absolutely happy," he is "pleased that the summit was held and agreement obtained."

THE DEAL THAT WASN'T: top brass of the floundering peace process force a few niceties while meeting at the emergency summit in Sharm Al-Sheikh (above); shuttle diplomacy may have yielded only weak fruit, despite Clinton's juggling of some hot tempers (left)

Clinton summed up the summit's results at Tuesday's concluding session but journalists were not allowed to ask questions in order to "promote reconciliation and avoid conflict," the US president said. "All the leaders agreed that our statement should stand on its own." A senior US official later said that the parties were still in an "emotional" phase and it was best for them not be provoked into public statements.

The Israelis claim that the agreement reached at Sharm Al-Sheikh was the same as that turned down by Arafat at a meeting with Barak and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Paris earlier this month. "Trust me, what happened in Sharm Al-Sheikh in terms of content is no different from Paris," acting Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami told the Weekly. "It is no different at all." An American official said that Sharm Al-Sheikh achieved more than the Paris meeting because there was a "greater degree of specificity; it focused on reaching an understanding on all [issues], and had a regional dimension."

An informed Egyptian source noted that since "circumstances and conditions on the ground are very different from the situation at the time of the Paris talks," Arafat could have changed his mind because of factors such as three million Palestinians under siege, over 120 killed and 3,000 wounded, and $10 million in daily losses over nearly three weeks. "All these casualties were on Arafat's mind at Sharm Al-Sheikh," he added.

After declining to organise the summit for nearly two weeks, Cairo finally agreed to play host because of the escalating violence. Foreign Minister Amr Moussa conceded that more time was needed to prepare for the summit, "but we couldn't afford to wait because of the military operations and the siege."

Hours before the marathon talks began, all parties issued warnings against high expectations. "We never expected the summit to end all violence," a high-ranking Egyptian diplomat told the Weekly. "Clashes will continue at one level or another." Before heading to Egypt, Albright noted that the summit would aim to "reduce" the violence, not to stem it altogether.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat anticipated that the talks would be "nightmarish." Sure enough, a meeting of foreign ministers was a charged and intense encounter, as the Palestinians and Israelis aired their views. At one point Ben Ami told Erekat that the Palestinians' demand for an international, rather than a US-led, fact-finding commission, was only an excuse to scuttle progress in the peace process. "You are a real hero, threatening us with guns," retorted Erekat.

The summit attempted to reach understandings through bilateral talks between Clinton and each of Arafat and Barak. Mubarak left the conference centre at 1:30am on Tuesday morning, after 15 hours of talks, while Clinton stayed on, meeting with Arafat and later Barak until nearly 4:00am. After a 5-hour break, Clinton was back at the summit for one-on-one talks with Mubarak and other parties. While leaders met throughout Monday and early Tuesday, foreign ministers huddled together to draft a concluding statement, and security officials brainstormed on possible arrangements.

The outcome of the meetings between security officials was the most significant result of the summit, allowing the two sides to hammer out and reach concrete arrangements on security matters. While refusing to give details, Ben Ami said that a trilateral committee on security affairs, comprising Americans, Palestinians and Israelis and established by the Wye Plantation agreement, would implement the security arrangements decided at Sharm Al-Sheikh. "The security committee will be revitalised to do very serious and detailed work," said Ben Ami. He added that the Israelis will start right away "working on security issues" in order to avoid a breach of the cease-fire.

At other meetings, negotiations were so tough that at one point the Egyptians believed the talks would fail. When talks deadlocked at the foreign ministers' meeting, the leaders picked up where their top diplomats left. An American official said that each side was left to "ventilate" before moving onto concrete discussions, and Clinton's Tuesday dawn meetings "turned a corner," paving the way for a conclusion in the early afternoon.

The summit produced a number of "understandings" between the US and the Palestinians and between the US and the Israelis, explained a senior administration official. This was done verbally, without the need to sign documents. "We went over everything carefully with the sides," noted the official, but said there was no need to prepare documents for signing because they wanted to forge ahead and "find ways to get moving. It's not a matter of format that matters; it's what happens on the ground that matters."

Before the summit began, none of the parties would say what the agenda would be. At the summit, and during what seemed to be endless negotiations, each party held fast to their demands. The Palestinians wanted a lifting of the siege on Palestinian territories, an international inquiry into the violence, and an Israeli troop withdrawal. The Israelis demanded the establishment of a mechanism to prevent a new outbreak of violence, the re-arrest of released Hamas and Jihad militants, the halt of inflammatory propaganda in the Palestinian press and media and safeguarding Jewish holy sites in Palestinian-controlled territory.

The Egyptians believed that investigations into the cause of the violence should not be dominated by the US, but should also include other nationalities. "The fact-finding committee must be an international one," Moussa said before the summit. "The Egyptians, Palestinians and Europeans agree on this. An American committee will be unacceptable." Cairo and the Palestinians also wanted to lay most of the blame for the violence at Israel's door, but their demands were turned down.

Clinton had three objectives when he came to Sharm Al-Sheikh. The first was to change the situation on the ground by determining the types of commitments and undertakings that could have the best impact; second, to reach agreement on the creation of a fact-finding committee; and third to move towards resuming negotiations in the peace process. It was the US agenda, which leaned towards the Israeli demands, that was pushed through the summit.

Clinton held that leaders "made real progress" toward halting the violence to pave the way for a resumption of peace talks. Arafat and Barak agreed to issue public statements to "unequivocally" call for an end to violence, and take "immediate, concrete measures to end the current confrontation, eliminate points of friction, maintain calm, and prevent recurrence of recent events."

The Sharm Al-Sheikh talks did not spell out the details of when or how the cease-fire will be enforced, but simply that "it's important that it be done very, very quickly," as a US official put it. "We're there to facilitate their discussions and cooperation, but the ability to change things in the end is in their hands." While it is yet unclear when to expect a public announcement of the cease-fire from either side, Ben Ami said that the agreement to lift the closure on Palestinian ports and borders would be implemented "immediately" after the summit.

The US also pledged to establish with the Palestinians, Israelis and in consultation with Annan, a fact-finding committee to investigate the recent violence and ways of preventing its recurrence. The committee's findings will be reviewed by the four parties, before a final report, under the auspices of the US President, is ready for publication.

EU envoy Miguel Moratinos told the Weekly that there was "a possibility" that the EU will be a member of the committee, but added that the choice of members lies in the hands of the US and the UN secretary-general.

The Americans tried to be reassuring, with a senior official saying that it would be "an independent committee [and] we want to ensure that each side feels that it's fair."

Israel won its demand that the committee be US-led, and Ben Ami insisted that the investigation will be carried out "in the most perfect way possible. There's no shred of a doubt there."

A UN spokesman said that a preliminary fact-finding report will be issued by the UN within six weeks and a final report in about three months. The main parties working on the report will be the US, UN, Palestinians and Israelis, and another limited group of about four people from different nationalities.

Seeking a revival of peace talks, the US will host Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in two weeks to discuss ways of making progress on this track. "The people who would be coming [to Washington] would be there to meet in order to sort out what the best procedures are to get back and the timing," Albright explained. "It's not to come back to begin negotiations, but more to develop the process."

At the end of the frenzied diplomatic effort, Clinton warned against "illusions about the difficulties ahead. If we are going to rebuild confidence and trust, we must all do our part, avoiding recrimination, and moving forward."

The full text of the Sharm El-Sheikh cease-fire agreement

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Related stories:
The real stakes 12 - 18 October 2000
'We will not be bullied' 12 - 18 October 2000
Summit call 5 - 11 October 2000
See also Intifada in focus 12 - 18 October 2000

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