State Dept. faults Israeli leaks, Clinton phones Assad

WASHINGTON -- President Bill Clinton held a long phone conversation with Syrian President Hafez Assad on advancing peace negotiations between Israel and Syria in advance of the next round of talks on Wednesday.

"The president was on a call to Assad," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. "He was discussing the next round which begins on the 19th and how we can make progress."

Siewert said Clinton spoke to Assad for quite "some time." He refused to elaborate.

At the State Department, a spokesman expressed annoyance with the leaks by the Israeli government of documents discussed at the last round of Israeli-Syrian talks in Sheperdstown, West Virginia. The Israeli daily Haaretz on Thursday published a U.S. blueprint for a peace treaty presented to Israel and Syria.

"With respect to what appeared in Haaretz, I think it is our view that it is particularly unhelpful for working documents and the confidentiality of the negotiations to be jeopardized," State Department spokesman James Rubin said. "We believe this makes our job more difficult, it makes the cause of peace more difficult, but we intend to persevere nonetheless."

On Friday, Haaretz continued to quote from U.S. documents presented at Sheperdstown. The newspaper said Syria opposes normalization with Israel before it fully evacuates the Golan Heights. This is one of the biggest obstacles in the negotiations, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said Prime Minister Ehud Barak wants the withdrawal timetable to take more than three years while normalization begins after a peace agreement is signed. Syria wants an 18-month withdrawal deadline.