Mideast talks break down

Dafna Linzer

Monday, Oct. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

JERUSALEM -- Talks on Israel's withdrawal from Hebron broke down today amid mutual recriminations between Israelis and Palestinians, and President Clinton's envoy said he would return to Washington without a deal.

The failure after three weeks of high-pressure talks heightened doubts about the future of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Success in the talks on Hebron would have signaled that the two sides could do business with each other despite deep mistrust.

It was not clear when or if talks would resume. It is unlikely Clinton will send envoy Dennis Ross back to the Middle East before the Nov. 5 presidential election, to avoid a potential high-profile diplomatic failure so close to the vote.

Negotiations were to resume later today, but progress was unlikely, with Ross away and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat having left for a trip to Europe.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Arafat today, saying agreement could have been reached had the Palestinian leader not been stalling.

"It was possible to close this agreement last night, I have no doubt of this," Netanyahu told a news conference.

"I very much hope that the suitable order will be given from the Palestinian side ... Without this order, even if you are very close to the end, you don't have a completion," he said.

Netanyahu spokesman David Bar-Illan said Arafat apparently wanted to drag out the talks until after the U.S. elections, in hopes that Clinton would then exert greater pressure on Israel.

The breakdown in the talks came after Israelis and Palestinians failed to agree on security arrangements for the 450 Jewish settlers who live among 94,000 Palestinians in Hebron, the last West Bank town under Israeli control.

Israel's previous government already had signed a withdrawal agreement with the Palestinians, but Netanyahu insisted that the terms of withdrawal be renegotiated to improve security arrangements for the settlers.

The Palestinians have said they were not willing to renegotiate the terms of the pullout.

In the talks, the Palestinians also raised the remaining elements of the peace agreements that have not yet been implemented, including Israel's promise to withdraw its troops from other West Bank rural areas, to release security prisoners and to open a passage between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"They refuse to deal with the other issues, saying Hebron first," said Zakariya Agha, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee. "If they succeed in imposing conditions on us, it means they will succeed imposing conditions concerning the other 34 issues."

Ross said today he would leave for Washington, but negotiations would continue and the United States would still play an active role. He spoke after Arafat left on an already-scheduled, weeklong trip to Europe.

Jibril Rajoub, chief of the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, said four substantive issues remained unresolved after an all-night negotiating session that ended early today:

* Israel's demand that Palestinian police in Hebron carry only pistols, not rifles, around settler enclaves;

* Israel's demand for the right of "hot pursuit" of suspects into Palestinian autonomous zones;

* Israel's opposition to the opening of Martyrs Street, a main thoroughfare and market area in the center of Hebron;

* Israel's demand to increase the number of joint Israeli-Palestinian patrols.