Palestinians Reject Clinton Plan
J E R U S A L E M, Jan. 8 -- Senior Palestinian negotiatorssaid today that the Palestinian Authority rejected U.S.President Bill Clinton’s proposals as a basis for endingconflict with Israel.
“We can’t accept Clinton’s ideas as a basis for futurenegotiations or a future settlement. Clinton didn’t take[Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat’s reservations intoaccount and these ideas don’t offer our people their legitimaterights,” senior negotiator Ahmed Korei told Reuters.
At the same time, Israeli negotiators said today they accepted the Clinton proposal as a basis for peace negotiations.
”We consider his ideas as a basis for the continuation ofnegotiations,” Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh toldReuters.
Details of the Plan Made Public
On Sunday, for the first time in public, Clinton outlinedhis plan for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and said he wouldsend his special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to the region.
Another Palestinian negotiator, Hassan Asfour, said today that Clinton had failed in his efforts to achieve a finalpeace because his aides were influenced by Israeli positionsthat had already been rejected by the Palestinians.
Clinton, peacemaker-in-chief after eight years in office,came close to acknowledging that a deal might not be reachedbefore his presidency ends on January 20, and a senior aide saidseparately that an accord would be hard to achieve by then.
Palestinian officials said Arafat, in talks with Clinton inWashington on January 2, had accepted the ideas with conditions,and only if amendments were made.
Wasted Time?
Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah said there was sufficienttime to reach a deal on sensitive final issues such as the fateof Jerusalem, refugees, borders, and Jewish settlements, andaccused Israel of having wasted the time.
“President Clinton almost admitted a deal would not bereached before he leaves office, and so he should have publiclyblamed Israel for wasting time,” Abu Rdainah told Reuters.
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