Mideast talks to go into the night

Israeli parliament speaker Avraham Burg says the peace talks have reached "a moment of truth"

Hopes waning for an agreement before Clinton leaves for summit in Japan

July 18, 2000
Web posted at: 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT)

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CAMP DAVID, Maryland (CNN) -- With the weight of a centuries-old conflict on their shoulders, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators waded into another long and difficult day of talks on Tuesday as they tried to forge an agreement that would bring a large measure of peace to the Middle East.

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"There is not an open-ended or unlimited amount of time," White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said at Camp David on Tuesday. "People have been ... up most of the night for the last three nights, so you can expect that they're tired. But they're staying at it."

U.S. President Bill Clinton finished a series of meetings -- including two with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak -- at 5 a.m. Tuesday, Lockhart said, and began again five hours later when he sat down with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

A breakthrough in the arduous process seemed unlikely as the clock ticked to Clinton's scheduled departure on Wednesday for a global economic summit in Japan.

But 9,500 kilometers (6,000 miles) away, in a disputed capital that is the heart of one of the talks' most sensitive issues, the speaker of Israel's parliament mused that any deal struck by Barak and Arafat was likely to come at the last minute.

"Every thousand-mile trek ends with one step. Eventually it has to stop somewhere," Avraham Burg said from Jerusalem on Tuesday. "In Israel the best solutions come at the last moment. With the Palestinian side they're coming sometimes even after the last moment."

White House officials have signaled that Clinton's departure on Wednesday for Okinawa will mean an end to high-pressure meetings that began July 11 between Barak and Arafat. But they are still hopeful a deal may be struck before the president leaves for Asia.

"We want a deal," said National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley on Monday. "They're here. They're engaged. There's no time like the present."

Knesset speaker Burg, who said he had spoken with Barak by phone earlier on Monday, said the talks had reached "a moment of truth."

"The perfect description of where we are now is the eye of the storm ... so many whirlwinds around, but it's a very quiet moment because it is a moment of truth," the Knesset speaker said. "Now everything is on the table. Now they are touching a lot of sacred issues ... Therefore it's impossible to predict now where the face of the storm is going."

The talks, which involve U.S. negotiators as well as aides to Barak and Arafat, have been tense at times, with one side reporting reasons for optimism while the other expressed growing doubts. In an effort to speed up progress, both sides have engaged in late-night talks the past two days.

Sources tell CNN there has been progress on minor differences, but negotiators can't agree on "core" issues such as a possible division of Jerusalem, which Israel considers its sacred capital.

Still photographs released to the press stir curiosity about how things are going. In one picture, Arafat is shown walking hand in hand with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In another, Barak appears grim. In still another, he grins while sitting in a room across from Clinton.

The president met twice Monday with Barak and also convened with Arafat on Monday afternoon.

Aides say Clinton wants to work to the last possible moment to try to bridge the parties' differences. He already has postponed a White House ceremony Tuesday at which he was to meet with members of the St. Louis Rams professional football team, the current Super Bowl champs.

Although he insisted early on that all parties would not comment during the summit, Clinton broke his silence Sunday in a telephone interview with The New York Daily News.

He was blunt in his assessment: "God, it's hard," he said.

Clinton told a reporter the negotiations were among the toughest in which he had been involved as president. An agreement remained elusive, he said.

Clinton, left, talks with Barak, second from right, during negotiations at Camp David on Monday

The future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a Palestinian state are among the key issues dividing Barak and Arafat.

The Palestinians want to establish their capital in east Jerusalem, but Israeli officials have been adamant that they must retain authority over all the ancient city. Jerusalem has proved among the most difficult topics for everyone so far, officials have said.

Barak reportedly has offered to give up most of the West Bank to the Palestinians if they will accept Israeli control over all of Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials, however, have insisted Arafat will accept no deal that excludes Palestinian rule over a section of the capital.

CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel, CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King, CNN.com Senior Writer KC Wildmoon and Reuters contributed to this report.

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