Israel has dropped its insistence on a Middle East venue for the time being and will return to Washington next month to resume the bilateral peace talks with the Arabs, which recessed there last week.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir made that clear at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting.
Afterward, Transport Minister Moshe Katsav told the media Israel had agreed from the outset to “two rounds” of talks in Washington before pressing for their shift near the Middle East.
“I believe the third round will be held closer,” he said.
The first round began Nov. 3, after the ceremonial opening of the peace talks in Madrid, and the second opened in Washington on Dec. 10.
President Bush, who said he was frustrated by the lack of progress toward substantive issues, complained last week that the parties had spent too much time talking about “where the next meeting is going to be.”
But the Israeli delegates were more upbeat when they returned to Jerusalem. After six days of meetings with Syrian and Lebanese negotiating teams and with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, all parties agreed to meet again.
The date set with the Palestinians, Jan. 7, apparently was accepted by the Syrians and Lebanese as well.
Shamir also indicated that Israel would continue to meet simultaneously with the three Arab teams. Previously it wanted to stagger the negotiations to erase any impression of an international conference.
The Cabinet dismissed the objections of one of its extreme right-wing members, Rehavam Ze’evi of the Moledet party, who declared it was time Israel rejected procedural concessions and refuse to return to Washington.
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