Jordan King Steps In to Jump-Start Stalled Talks

JERUSALEM — Jordan’s King Hussein, in a marathon effort to end the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, flew to the Gaza Strip on Sunday to meet Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, then continued on to late-night talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Amid signs of apparent movement in the stalled process, U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross, who has been struggling to broker a deal on the long-delayed Israeli redeployment from the West Bank city of Hebron, abruptly canceled plans to leave for Washington and took part in the talks, U.S. officials said.

Late Sunday, all sides reported progress toward narrowing the differences on the latest issue holding up the Hebron accord: the timing of three additional Israeli pullbacks from largely rural areas of the West Bank. But they stopped short of predicting an imminent agreement.

“There was substantial progress on issues not connected to Hebron,” Netanyahu told reporters after his discussions with Hussein. “I believe that a possibility to conclude the agreement can now be seen, but there are still details we have to deal with.”

Ross, whose latest mediation effort has lasted three weeks, also said the gaps have been narrowed. “We are closer to an agreement than we were,” he said.

The king met with Arafat for seven hours, during which the two leaders held telephone discussions with Netanyahu, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

When Hussein flew on to Tel Aviv to meet with Netanyahu, he carried a compromise proposal, approved by Arafat and coordinated with U.S. officials, aimed at bridging the gap that has developed over the timing of the final West Bank pullback.

Israel has proposed completing the redeployments by May 1999. The Palestinians have demanded that Israel abide by existing agreements to finish the withdrawals by next September. The United States had angered the Palestinians by splitting the difference, suggesting mid-1998.

Hussein’s proposal, which appeared to have been greeted with favor--at least initially--by both sides, involves starting the first phase of the “further redeployments” by the end of February, a U.S. official said. The third and final phase would be carried out between April and September 1998, he said.

Israeli television reported that Netanyahu and Arafat, or their negotiating team leaders, could meet as early as today to initial an agreement, but officials close to the negotiations urged caution, noting that similar predictions of success have come to nothing.

“Does it look like progress right now?” one said. “In immediate terms, yes. In substantive terms, we’ll see.”

Even if the two leaders finally reach agreement, Netanyahu is expected to face a major hurdle in gaining its approval from a majority of his 18-member Cabinet.

As the weeks have passed, opposition to the emerging accord has hardened within the Cabinet, with seven ministers already on record as saying they will vote against it.

Several others have said they will not support any agreement that specifies a deadline for the additional withdrawals.

Palestinians, however, have interpreted the toughening of the Cabinet opposition as a negotiating ploy, intended to provide Netanyahu with a political reason not to compromise.

At the same time, Arafat has hardened his own stance, suspicious that Netanyahu would not follow through with other redeployments once a Hebron pullout was completed.

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Arafat’s Cabinet, in a statement Saturday night, warned that, “if the international community does not intervene to save the peace process from the danger it is in . . . the region will face an explosion.”

Israel was supposed to have withdrawn its troops last March from 80% of Hebron, the last Palestinian city to be granted self-rule under terms of a 1995 interim agreement.

But the withdrawal from the city was delayed, first by a wave of deadly bombings within Israel, then by Netanyahu’s election and his determination to improve security arrangements for the 450 Jewish settlers who live in Hebron among about 100,000 Palestinians.

And even as the two sides appeared to be inching closer to their elusive accord Sunday, the Hebron settlers reiterated their own opposition to any agreement, Israel Radio reported.

Leaders of the settlers called on Netanyahu not to sign the agreement, which they said would be the “first step to annihilation” for their tiny enclaves.