An air of disappointment has settled over Israel with the low-key reports from Israeli officials in Geneva regarding their progress in the ongoing hostage talks.
Lawyer Uri Slonim, the prime minister’s adviser on this issue and a member of the team that has been meeting with UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, said Thursday that he did not expect negotiations to be over very soon.
He and the other members of the Israeli team — Uri Lubrani, coordinator of policy in Lebanon, and Yohanan Bein, an assistant director-general at the Foreign Ministry — were expected to return home before the weekend.
Both Lubrani and Slonim made it clear that further diplomatic contacts would be conducted far from the eyes of the media.
The Israelis and the secretary-general apparently decided at a meeting Wednesday that the best interests of all the hostages would be best served if the negotiations were conducted much more quietly than they have been during recent days.
Slonim declined to set a time-frame, but indicated that he expected no imminent breakthrough unless Israel were given hard information regarding the whereabouts and well-being of its seven missing servicemen.
Defense Minister Moshe Arens, speaking in Tel Aviv on Thursday, confirmed that the week of high-profile diplomacy had not furnished Israel with “any more information than we had before” regarding its seven MIAs.
Arens also criticized the Israeli media sharply for the coverage they gave recent statements by “that terrorist and liar” Ahmed Jabril regarding the fates of the Israeli MIAs. Arens said he gave no credence to Jabril’s remarks.
On Thursday, several newspapers here gave prominence to Jabril’s interview with Reuters in which he said three Israeli soldiers missing since the battle of Sultan Yaacoub in 1982 were dead.
Jabril also said that Israel had in effect given up on the three men when it exchanged 1,150 Arab prisoners for three Israeli POWs in 1985.
Israeli policymakers were pleased, at least, that Jerusalem’s position — making the release of any detainees by Israel conditional upon Israel receiving reliable information with regard to its MIAs — was receiving a hearing around the world.
The feeling here is that the pressure on Israel to offer a unilateral gesture has eased, especially following President Bush’s sympathetic remarks Tuesday regarding Israel’s insistence on receiving the information before taking any action.
Perez de Cuellar echoed that sentiment at a news conference Thursday in Geneva when he said of the Israelis: “They want to know — and I understand them — the fate of their missing persons.”
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