Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy’s meeting here Tuesday with Secretary of State James Baker failed to clear up differences between the two sides over the issue of Palestinian representation at the scheduled upcoming round of multilateral talks on Middle East regional issues.
But despite the disagreements, Levy told reporters that Israel wants to continue exploring all avenues that could lead to peace.
The Palestinians want representatives of their diaspora to be allowed to participate in two of the five sets of talks on regional issues: one dealing with refugee affairs, set to take place May 13-15 in Ottawa, and the other dealing with economic development, slated for May 12-14 in Brussels.
Their view is that diaspora Palestinians are an integral constituency that should benefit from any accord on refugee resettlement or economic development.
Israel opposes Palestinian diaspora representation for fear it would bolster international support for a right of return of Palestinians to Israel on par with the right enjoyed by Jews.
In a briefing for reporters Tuesday, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Zalman Shoval, accused Palestinians of wanting to slip in the right of return “through the back door.”
Diaspora Palestinians, meaning those who live outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip, have been barred from participating in the five rounds of bilateral talks involving Israel, Syria, Lebanon and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
That was part of the understanding Israel reached with the Arabs when Baker negotiated the terms of the current peace process last summer and fall.
NO DISCUSSION OF LOAN REQUEST
The Palestinians tried to bring diaspora representatives to the opening of the multilateral talks in Moscow in January. When the United States and Russia refused them entry, the Palestinians boycotted the talks. Syria and Lebanon also did not participate.
Israel argues that the conditions for the bilateral talks should apply to the multilateral talks as well. But Baker left the door open in Moscow to broader Palestinian participation in the various sets of talks on regional issues.
Levy told reporters Tuesday after his 75-minute meeting with Baker that Israel is seeking “changes in determining Palestinian representation in the multilateral talks.”
The United States and Israel are in agreement, though, that no Palestinians should participate in the talks on arms control, slated to take place here May 11-13.
But the United States feels that Palestinians, though not those from outside the territories, should be allowed to take part in the talks on water resources, convening May 12-14 in Vienna, and the talks on the environment, set for the week of May 18 in Tokyo.
The Levy-Baker meeting was hastily arranged after the Israeli foreign minister informed the Bush administration that he would be in New York on Monday evening for a dinner celebrating 500 years of Jewish life in Turkey.
During the meeting, Levy and Baker reportedly did not discuss the standoff over Israel’s request that the United States guarantee $10 billion in loans to help resettle immigrants.
But they did delve into such items as the need to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge and the creation of a joint U.S.-Israeli team to study this issue.
There was also discussion of U.S.-Israeli cooperation in providing Israeli technical help for the newly independent Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union.
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