Clinton upon departing for West Virginia to join the peace talks

January 7, 2000
Web posted at: 10:37 a.m. EST (1537 GMT)

In this story: Committees fail to meet Talks "chugging along" RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

SHEPHERDSTOWN, West Virginia (CNN) -- U.S. President Clinton flew back to West Virginia on Friday to try again to get Israel and Syria moving forward in peace talks, which are in their fifth day.

"This is difficult stuff. This is very hard," Clinton said just before he left the White House. "They're working hard and they're trying to find ways to resolve their differences."

Clinton is making his fourth trip to rural Shepherdstown since the negotiations began Monday. He met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa on Thursday.

Clinton said he believed both sides were working in good faith and that he was "just trying to be helpful."

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"I just try to get people together and identify what they have in common, identify what their differences are," Clinton said. He added he was trying to get the two sides "to keep in mind the big picture at the end ... what we hope and pray the Middle East will look like in five years or ten years from now."

A source close to the Syrian delegation says there will be a three-way meeting between Clinton, Barak and al-Sharaa on Friday, but there was no confirmation of that from Israeli or U.S. officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, acting as a facilitator in the Israeli-Syrian talks, recommended that Clinton visit Shepherdstown. It's hoped that Clinton's continued presence will get both sides "rolling up their sleeves," said U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin.

Albright held a lengthy morning meeting Thursday with al- Sharaa, who was reportedly displeased that there have been no talks over Syria's key demand: a timetable for Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Committees fail to meet

Israeli and Syrian negotiators have been divided into four committees to talk about major issues the two sides see as critical to the peace process: borders, normal peaceful relations, security arrangements and water.

The committees did not meet on Thursday, touching off speculation in the press that the talks had stalled.

Syria insists on a meeting of the committee handling the Golan Heights, and accuses Israel of stalling on the issue.

"The Israelis are trying to block the work of the borders committee ... at the expense of the serious and substantive work which should be done here," said a Syrian official.

The Israelis countered that the Syrians are not willing to cover new ground and are simply reiterating positions taken when talks were last held in 1996.

"The Syrians so far have not delivered the goods," said a senior source in the Israeli delegation.

Clinton, center, with Barak, left, and al-Sharaa earlier this week

Talks 'chugging along'

Rubin said that although committees did not meet Thursday, both sides discussed the issues with U.S. negotiators helping with the talks.

"The feeling is that those meetings have been sufficiently good and constructive that they have ... superseded committee meetings," Rubin said.

A Syrian official, who asked not to be identified, said the negotiations were in crisis. However, Rubin insisted that talks were still "chugging along" -- but not on the fast track that U.S. officials had wanted.

"There are a number of ways to skin a procedural cat, all with the objective of moving us closer to a core agreement," he said.

The United States and Russia announced Thursday that wide-scale Mideast peace talks will resume in Moscow on February 1 after a three-year hiatus.

The multinational talks are aimed at reducing tensions between Israel and Arab states in North Africa and the Persian Gulf region. Diplomats from powerful industrial nations with ties to the region will also attend.

Correspondents Andrea Koppel and Walter Rodgers, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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