Israel was satisfied with the way the multilateral conference on the Middle East wound up here Wednesday, as it divided into working groups on regional issues.
“We accomplished all that we set out to do,” Foreign Minister David Levy told Israeli journalists at a news briefing Wednesday night.
The thesis that the Arabs will not sit with Israel on matters of economic cooperation without there being progress on the bilateral track has been disproved, Levy observed with relish.
“This is a victory for the policies of the government,” he said, adding that Secretary of State James Baker had told him “that he saw the Moscow conference as a great achievement for Israel.”
According to Jason Isaacson, director of government and international affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who was an observer here, “Israel seems to have confidence in the process and seems to be benefiting from the process.”
There was particular gratification in the American and Israeli camps that Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states sent representatives to most of the working groups.
The Russian hosts were also optimistic.
“Today we can say with relief that the expectation of skeptics did not come true. The Moscow meeting was a diplomatic success,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Petrovsky said at another news briefing.
TALKS IN WASHINGTON, TOKYO
More than 20 countries participating in this phase of the peace process formed working groups Wednesday to seek progress on five regional issues this spring at various sites around the world.
Because of the Moslem festival of Ramadan and the Passover holiday in April this year, the next round of meetings of the working groups will not take place till early May.
At that time, a seminar on arms control and military confidence-building measures will be held in Washington.
“Arabs and Israelis together will learn about other systems of confidence-building and tension-reduction,” said Gen. David Ivri, director general of the Defense Ministry, who heads the Israeli delegation in the arms control talks.
Simultaneously a seminar on questions of environmental protection will be held in Tokyo, under Japanese auspices. The Japanese propose first, however, to send a study mission to the region to examine environmental issues, with particular reference to the West Bank and the Gulf of Aqaba.
The economic development working group plans to reconvene in Brussels, while Turkey and Austria each have offered to host the next session of the water resources group.
At the working group session on refugee resettlement, the Israelis suggested that the refugee issue be extended to Jews who fled Arab countries after the creation of the State of Israel.
But that was rejected by Arab participants. The refugee group will meet in Canada.
The Palestinians took no part in the two-day conference, because they insisted on including delegates from East Jerusalem and outside the administered territories, in violation of the ground rules set at the peace conference opening in Madrid last October.
Israel was backed by the United States and the Russian hosts in its refusal to accept delegates from the so-called Palestinian diaspora.
Most delegates indicated that they endorse the American-Russian proposal that representatives of the Palestinian diaspora be admitted to future sessions of the working groups on refugee resettlement and economic development.
BAKER CRITICIZES PALESTINIANS
But Levy reiterated Israel’s firm rejection of that proposal.
Nevertheless, Yosef Hadass, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, expressed confidence that his government could resolve the disagreement with Washington.
“We are continuing to discuss it with utter frankness,” he said. “I am sure that even on very difficult questions, we will reach an understanding. We are two friendly nations.”
The Palestinians at their daily news conference Wednesday were vague about where they stand on the American position.
One of their leaders, Saeb Erekat of Jericho, insisted that diaspora representatives must participate in all five working groups.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Amr Moussa, made it clear that the other Arab delegations support the American-Russian position.
Secretary of State Baker met Wednesday evening with Palestinian delegates Faisal Husseini and Hanan Ashrawi. He reportedly criticized them for boycotting the Moscow conference.
In his closing remarks Tuesday, Baker noted that the Palestinians had much to gain from participating in the multilateral talks.
But Israel and its supporters tried not to let the disagreement over Palestinian representation overshadow the historic significance of Arab states sitting down to negotiate with Israel in the Russian capital.
As Isaacson of the American Jewish Committee put it: “This is an extraordinary event, and it should not be undermined or deflected in any way by the last-minute P.R. stunts of the Palestinians.
“There has been genuine, measurable progress toward resolving the problems of the Middle East,” he said.
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