Balkan, Middle East negotiations unfolding
Arabs, Israelis not focusing
on same issue in recent
burst of diplomatic activity
By Neil Feldman
Staff Reporter
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Ever since Israel deported 415
Palestinians on Dec. ly, the feeling among
most officials involved in the Middle East
peace process was that the talks would be
indefinitely stalled between the eighth and
ninth rounds.
But two weeks ago, the
first positive sign came
when a burst of diplomatic
activity in both the Middle
East and Washington
brought all parties to their
toes.
Middle East officials,
which included Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres, Israeli negotiators and
Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi,
met with members of the Clinton
administration for the first time.
Reminiscent of the Kissinger years, a
flash of shuttle diplomacy took place within"
the Middle East state. Abdullah ibn Abdel
aziz al-Saud, the Saudi crown prince, made
separate trips to Damascus and Cairo. Hosni
Mubarak, Egypt’s president, made a quick
trip to Damascus, and Rafik al-Hariri,
president of Lebanon, visited both cities.
All of those trips, which could have been
missed with the blink of an eye, came just
prior to U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher’s first trip to the Middle East.
There is no question that these lightning
quick displays of diplomacy are a good sign
for the future of the Middle East peace talks.
But like the previous eight rounds of
negotiations, both sides — the Arabs and
Israelis — are not focusing on the same
issues.
Principally concerned with the 415
deportees cited as being part of Hamas, the
Islamic resistance movement, the Arabs have
not indicated that they are prepared to give in
over this issue.
The Palestine Liberation Organization has
taken a particularly harsh stance on this
issue. They have repeatedly demanded the
return of all refugees before the peace talks
resumed.
A recent U.S.-brokered Israeli offer to
bring 101 of the deportees back to their
homeland immediately and the rest by the
end of this year seemed like it might
temporarily quell the rising tensions.
However, the Jordanians, Lebanese,
Palestinians and Syrians all have rejected this
offer, insisting that U.N. Resolution 779,
which calls for all the deported men to be
returned immediately, is the only way to
resolve this issue.
Ghassen al-Khattib of the Palestinian
delegation said accepting the U.S.-Israeli
deal would be “very dangerous.” The reason,
he said, was because they do not want to lose
other resolutions, such as 242 and 338, which
would give Palestinians autonomous rule of
the West bank and Gaza Strip.
Representatives from the Israeli
delegation continue to harp on the notion that
the deportee issue will be resolved one way
or another. The Israelis recently have
indicated that they are anxious to get the
ninth round of Washington-based peace talks
off the ground to resume negotiations.
Shimon Peres said Israel assumed the
deportation issue was off the agenda.
But Hanan Ashrawi clearly has not
dismissed it. Two weeks ago, she urged the
Clinton administration to renew the dialogue
between the United States and the PLO. The
PLO, though, has repeatedly demanded the
immediate return of all deportees to their
homeland.
This display of politics by the Palestinians
may, as one Israeli official alluded, further
complicate the crisis.
If the conflict is not resolved, many - v
Washington-based Middle East analysts have
suggested the Jordanians, Lebanese,
Palestinians and Syrians could boycott future
Middle East talks, and break down the entire
peace process.
Bosnians still seek to use
ground forces; U.N. talks
turn to political boundaries
By Neil Feldman
Staff Reporter
As Bosnian leaders continue to put
pressure on peacekeepers to use force on the
ground, U.N. officials in New York are
trying to quell the Balkan inferno through
peaceful, diplomatic negotiations.
Ws
The latest round of talks,
which began last weekend,
are focusing on the
political boundaries of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Initiated by Cyrus Vance
of the United Nations and
Lord David Owen of the
European Community, the Vance-Owen
peace plan calls for carving Bosnia and
Herzegovina into 10 autonomous provinces.
Vance and Owen are hoping that the U.N.
Security Council will endorse their plan by
the beginning of next week.
The recent nod by the Clinton
administration to support the plan is a plus to
the peace process, Vance said last week.
U.S. Special Envoy Reginald
Bartholomew and Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Vitaly Churkin are both new
additions to the peace talks and are expected
to help speed things up.
But the United States does not see the
proposed map as fair to the Muslims, and the
Russians have strong ethnic ties to the Serbs.
Many analysts of the Balkan War are
skeptical as to whether the negotiators will
be able to get past these two barriers.
If talks proceed and nothing close to a
consensus is reached, analysts say chances
are the Security Council will not endorse the
' Vance-Owen peace plan.
However, U.N. officials remain
optimistic, stressing that they are confident
these two temporary setbacks will not hinder
the overall process.
A proposal issued by the French that
would establish an international tribunal for
war crimes committed in the Balkan War is
also on the agenda.
George Kenney, the former desk officer
for Yugoslav affairs at the State Department,
said last week that the proposal by the
French probably would get smothered by the
intense focus on the Vance-Owen plan.
The United Nations also is concerned with
the decision by the Bosnian government last
week to halt distribution of relief aid to
Sarajevo and Tulza until U.N. convoys are
more effective at getting through Serb
roadblocks to Muslims under siege in eastern
Bosnia.
U.N. officials in former Yugoslavia are
aghast at this move, calling it blackmail
because the Bosnian armies had harassed
convoys.
Serb commanders, though, blocked two
aid convoys for four days while they were on
their way to beleaguered Muslims in eastern
Bosnia.
The United Nations opted to keep the
convoy on the road until it was allowed
through, clearly displaying that it had every
right to reach the Muslims.
Before leaving for the Middle East last
week, Secretary of State Warren Christopher
said the United States was ready to take
“determined steps” to ensure that aid gets
through.
This statement came several days after the
United States announced that it was ready to
participate in negotiations regarding the
Vance-Owen peace plan.
Experts on the Yugoslav crisis continue to
harp on the notion that all parties must come
to an agreement before the peace plan can
effectively work.
Otherwise, they argue, the negotiations
will result in a stalemate, and they will be
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