UN Secretary General Kofi Annan shuttled between the Israelis and Palestinians Wednesday amid hopes of a breakthrough in peace efforts within hours, as the death toll in the ongoing violence passed the 100 mark, Gaza City (AFP)
The focus seemed to be on securing a formula for an inquiry into the two weeks of clashes which have rocked the Palestinian territories and parts of Israel and seriously threatened the peace process.
The European Union's foreign policy and security chief, Javier Solana, told a news conference in Cairo that a deal was close.
"In the coming hours, I hope we will be able to come to a conclusion accepted by everybody," Solana said. "Things may be moving in that direction."
France's Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine also informed the French parliament that Solana had told him of "encouraging signs that could become apparent within the next few hours."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, had telephoned him to report "a process of the coming together of positions."
"I will be careful, but certain agreements have been reached which allow one to hope that the peace process can be restored," Putin said.
"This has become something of a shuttle process. The idea is to come up with some kind of formula to have both sides appeal for calm and, once calm is restored, to try to resume the peace process," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said after Annan met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the third time in two days.
Annan, who put off a planned trip to Lebanon, left Gaza to return to Jerusalem, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was unable to confirm he would see the premier again.
Asked about the possibility of a three-way summit soon between Barak and Arafat chaired by Annan, Eckhard said: "At the moment he is talking to each of them separately, what would happen later this week we will have to see.
"There's been talk of a meeting but we will just have to see who else comes to town," he added.
"We are trying to get agreements among both parties and we will see if we make any progress by the end of today (Wednesday). It is our hope that we can achieve something by the end of today but we are by no means sure."
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook also arrived in Israel Wednesday to add his weight to the pressure on both sides to secure an agreement.
In Washington, US President Bill Clinton said he had no immediate plans to visit the Middle East but he was engaged in intense telephone diplomacy in a bid to halt the violence.
"Secretary (of State Madeleine) Albright or I might go, maybe in time we will both go," Clinton said, adding that he had had a long conversation Wednesday with Annan, who was at the centre of the peace drive on the ground.
Discussions still centered on the "structure" of an inquiry commission, but the "principle" of one has been accepted, Solana said at the news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa.
Egypt joined the Palestinians in refusing to join a peace summit without a satisfactory international investigation but Israel warned it would not allow a probe to turn into a "kangaroo court" that would drag on for months.
In the Palestinian territories the relative calm that set in two days ago was maintained, but two Palestinian teenagers died in separate clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Sporadic clashes also occurred in other parts of the West Bank, with Palestinians confronting both Israeli forces and Jewish settlers, resulting in a number of injuries.
In Gaza City, 100 gun-toting members of Arafat's Fateh party led a rally of thousands of demonstrators in the city center. Under the name of the Fateh Hawks, they called for an armed uprising against Israel.
The Fateh leader for the West Bank, Marwan Barghouthi, said however that he had received instructions from Arafat to avoid confrontations with the Israeli army.
The focus on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict overshadowed the fate of three Israeli soldiers snatched by Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas on Saturday.
At a press conference a Hezbollah leader accepted the principle of mediation by Annan, but rejected Israeli demands for an unconditional release of the men.
Any deal must include the freeing of prisoners in Israeli jails, he said, in a stand echoed by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi was was visiting the Syrian capital.
But Barak told a parliamentary commission on Wednesday that there could be no negotiations until the International Committee of the Red Cross was allowed access to the hostages.
Anti-Israeli feeling also had repercussions abroad, with two Paris synagogues set on fire overnight Tuesday in attacks which police fear could be linked to the violence in the Middle East.
And demonstrations continued in Cairo and Damascus – (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
