World

Albright Meets Palestinians

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 25, 1999 / 5:47 PM EDT / CBS

Mindful that an Israeli pullback from the West Bank is a major goal of the Clinton Administration, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is exploring further Mideast peacemaking with senior Palestinian officials.

With an agreement on an Israeli pullback falling into place, Albright is due to travel to the region next week where she hopes to witness the signing of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority if final details can be worked out.

Her talks Friday with negotiator Saeb Erekat and Yasser Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas (widely known as Abu Mazen), are part of the stock-taking the State Department says is Albright's aim on her trip.

The hard bargaining is going on in the region. And there, Arafat was quoted by Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, as saying "there is an agreement on a timetable, at least in principle."

Green was in a group of visiting American members of Congress who met with the Palestinian leader. Until recently, Arafat had registered impatience with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on implementing Israel's promise to give up another 13 percent of the West Bank.

Erekat, speaking to reporters before leaving for Washington, said he planned to return to Jerusalem by Saturday night for a new round of negotiations with his Israeli counterpart, Gilead Sher, "in order to reach a deal before Albright comes."

Diplomatic sources in Washington said Thursday that a memorandum of understanding between the two sides could be signed Sept. 2 in Alexandria, Egypt, with Albright on hand. The sources spoke on the condition they not be named.

The agreement now taking shape calls for Israel to resume its pullback from 13 percent of the West Bank that was promised last October but halted after 2 percent was surrendered. Israel would relinquish 7 percent this October and the remaining 4 percent in January.

That stretches out the period of pulling back a few weeks but gives the Palestinians more territory in the October phase.

At the same time, the two sides would begin negotiations on the thorniest issues that have divided them for decades about Jerusalem's future:

whether the Palestinians are to be granted a state;
dealing with refugees;
and resolving water problems.

Abbas and Hasan Abdel Rahman, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's office in Washington, have held a series of unannounced meetings here with U.S. mediators.

Saying that a pullback is Israel's best hope for security, President Clinton has publicly supported Palestinian "aspirations" while blocking transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

On her trip, Albright will also try to make headway in promoting a negotiated withdrawal by Israel on the Golan Heights, a strategic enclave lost by Syria in the 1967 war. Negotiations were broken off three years ago.

Rahman said the Palestinians were hopeful for an agreement on imlementation of the Wye River accords, as well as other interim issues and on starting talks on a final settlement.