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."