US Middle East troubleshooter Dennis Ross began a new mission Thursday to try to overcome the main obstacles to Israel-Palestinian peace less than a month before a deadline for a comprehensive accord.
Israel, however, ruled out any new summit without more flexibility from Palestinian Presidnet Yasser Arafat, urging him to seize the "historic opportunity" for peace.
The Palestinians -- who have put their plans for a statehood declaration next month under review -- warned that the failure of a second summit after the collapse of three weeks ago of the US-sponsored negotiations at Camp David could have dangerous repercussions.
Ross met Thursday afternoon in Tel Aviv with Israel's Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami to prepare the ground for a new summit, but neither made any comments to the media.
The envoy's visit coincided with criticism by Israel and the Palestinians of a warning from Washington to US citizens of an increased possibility of terrorist attacks in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
"I don't understand why such a warning was issued. It should not have been given," Prime Minister Ehud Barak's top security advisor Danny Yatom told AFP.
The Palestinian chief of security in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, dismissed the warning as "propaganda."
The US embassy in Tel Aviv said it was simply reiterating a previous warning and there was no connection to the killing of 73-year-old Mahmud Assad Abdallah, which has raised tensions in the Palestinian territories.
Ross will continue his visit with a meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Friday. On Saturday he is expected to meet Arafat, who is winding up a post-Camp David world tour.
Ben Ami, who met Wednesday with Palestinian negotiators in the first such high-level meeting since Camp David, said Israel was seeking a "meaningful change" in their position.
"The question of the summit is for the time being not really on the agenda," he told reporters. "We feel that in order for us to be able to proceed to a new and more momementous step in this process we need to have some flexibility from the other side."
Barak also called on Arafat not to miss a chance of achieving peace with the September 13 deadline approaching, saying "only openness and flexibility in the Palestinian position can enable a breakthrough which will end in an accord."
But Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said he doubted the current contacts would achieve agreement on the most difficult issues dividing them including Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and warned that the failure of a new summit would have "dangerous repercussions."
Rajoub called on the United States to "exert pressure on Israel to abide by Security Council resolutions."
UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the 1967 war, including east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and calls for the right of refugees to return.
Israel captured mainly Arab east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it as part of its "united eternal" capital, a position not recognised by the international community.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and its holy Christian, Jewish and Islamic sites, as the capital of a Palestinian state.
Arafat said Wednesday the Palestine Liberation Organisation was reviewing its plan to declare an independent state by the September 13 deadline.
"We have decided the course, but we have to reassess this," Arafat said in Jakarta, adding that the decision would be made by the PLO's Central Council at a meeting early next month.
The move was welcomed by Israel's Regional Cooperation Minister Shimon Peres, currently on a visit to China, as a "wise step."
Both Israel and the United States had warned against a unilateral declaration, and Arafat failed to win much backing for such a move during his three-week tour of Arab, European and Asian states -- OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
