World Tribune.com

Barak reported unhappy with Clinton's haste, pressure

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, January 13, 2000

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is said to be unhappy with the Clinton administration's haste to seal an agreement between the Jewish state and Syria.

Both opposition and coalition sources said on Wednesday that Barak appreciates President Bill Clinton's intense involvement in the Israeli-Syrian negotiations. But the sources said Clinton's efforts to conclude an agreement over the next two months have resulted in most of the pressure being imposed on Israel.

The sources said both Foreign Minister David Levy and Tourism Minister Amnon Shahak, who attended the last round of negotiations in Sheperdstown, West Virginia, were surprised when the United States presented a draft of principles of a peace treaty that ignored Israeli demands on normalization and security arrangements. They said the pressure is expected to be increased on Israel during the next round of talks on Jan. 19 when Israel and Syria are to respond to the U.S. document.

In an interview on Wednesday, Barak said the negotiations are arriving at the critical stage. He denied that he agreed to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights and said a peace treaty would include massive U.S. aid.

"Unfortunately, not everything is wrapped up," he said. "These things can't be concluded quickly."

A key aide of Barak, Education Minister Yossi Sarid, said on Wednesday that the negotiations have passed the exploratory stage. He said after another two rounds Israel will be able to determine whether an agreement can be reached. He said he believed a peace treaty could be signed with Syria.

"In another few weeks, there will be an agreement," Sarid said.

Barak was also said to have been disturbed that his confidential talks with senior U.S. officials, including Clinton, were leaked to the Syrians. They said this includes the prime minister's so-called red lines in negotiations with Syria.

"The Americans raised this with the Syrians," Likud chairman Ariel Sharon said on Wednesday. "It aroused his anger."

"The United States is a very serious country," Sharon added. "Everything is planned, even crises. The Americans are very serious, professional. They don't allow the hand of chance to operate."

Syrian diplomatic sources said Barak appeared to try to slow down the negotiations in the last round. The London-based Al Hayat daily quoted the sources as saying that Barak "did not displace the required seriousness in the last round." They said the next round would have Israel and Syria negotiate on the substance and raise demands.

Coalition sources said Barak is uneasy with Clinton's assurances that President Hafez Assad has given Foreign Minister Farouk A-Shaara a free hand to conduct the negotiations. The sources said Barak feels that A-Shaara has been entrusted with one task: to elicit an Israeli commitment to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights. The Syrian foreign minister, Barak is said to feel, has no authority to make any commitment on such issues as normalization, security arrangements and water rights.

Barak has dismissed these reports. But he has refused to provide more than scant details of the negotiations to the Cabinet. On Wednesday, the prime minister cancelled a meeting of the ministerial committee on security.

"He sat with us for 20 minutes and I must say that the report was not more than what I heard in the media," Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy said.

Earlier, State Department spokesman James Rubin said the United States does not want to rush Israel to sign an agreement. "We believe that we cannot urge the parties to go faster in pursuing this agreement than they are comfortable with, that it's their decision," he said on Tuesday. "They are the ones that are going to have to make the decision as to whether to make the essential decisions to get an agreement."

Thursday, January 13, 2000


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