White House anxious to fit Syria talks into political timetable

WASHINGTON -- The United States has intensified efforts to resume negotiations between Israel and Syria as officials race against time before President Bill Clinton focuses on the presidential elections campaign.

U.S. officials said the first task is to convince Syria to send a team of experts to Washington to discuss a White House draft of guidelines that will serve as a peace treaty between Damascus and Jerusalem. Syria has refused to send any representative until Israel agrees to delineate a new border that will reflect a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Publicly, U.S. government spokespeople have been sanguine regarding the current break in the negotiations. "We have been in diplomatic channels both the substance and the procedure of the Syria track with both Damascus and Washington and we do expect experts from both sides to come in the near future," State Department spokesman James Rubin said on Thursday.

But privately, officials have been concerned that with each passing day Washington will encounter greater difficulty in bringing Israel and Syria back to the negotiating table. They said despite several telephone calls by Clinton, Assad has refused to send Foreign Minister Farouk A-Shaara or his aides to Washington.

One official pointed to rising domestic pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Barak in connection with a criminal investigation that his One Israel party laundered illegal campaign funds.

The officials said the Clinton administration has assessed that the two countries must resume negotiations by mid-February to ensure that a peace treaty is completed by May. By that point, they said, Clinton will have to clear his schedule to campaign for Vice President Al Gore.

The London-based Al Hayat daily on Friday said Clinton does not want to be seen as pressuring Israel to return to the negotiating table. The newspaper, in an article written by British journalist Patrick Seale, said Clinton does not want any crisis in the negotiations that will make it appear that he is pressuring Israel. This will hurt Gore and the raising of funds from Jews in the Democratic Party.

Seale wrote that a key reason for the refusal of A-Shaara to visit Washington is the presence of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, who was in the United States earlier this month.

Several U.S. government sources involved in the Middle East peace talks acknowledge that some aides of Barak, and perhaps the prime minister himself, are feeling uncomfortable with the tight U.S. timetable. They said Israel and the United States are not in agreement regarding procedural issues disputed by Syria in the negotiations.

Syria has insisted that Israel issue a commitment for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the convening of a committee to delineate the new border before other issues are discussed. Syria said this was a commitment issued by Clinton.

Barak, however, wants Syria to discuss normalization and security arrangements before the border issue is tackled.

Arab diplomatic sources said Israel and the United States are also in disagreement over the future of Syria. They said the Clinton administration has urged the European Union to draft a plan to funnel massive amounts of aid to Syria in an attempt to maintain stability in Damascus.

The sources said the Israeli approach is for a more deliberate effort to ensure that Damascus remains committed to any peace treaty with the Jewish state.