Rabin Meeting with Clinton Seen As Solidifying Relations

President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, meeting this week for the first time since Clinton took office, seemed to be well on the way to cementing the solid U.S.-Israeli relations that Secretary of State Warren Christopher has worked to build during the past couple of months.

The two heads of government emitted an air of warmth and cooperation as they faced the press corps Monday after several hours of meetings focusing on the Middle East peace process and the future of foreign aid to Israel.

The peace talks, due to resume here April 20, were high on the agenda of both leaders, who each referred in his respective public remarks afterward to Israel’s goal of achieving both peace and security.

“We are ready for compromise,” Rabin said of Israel’s role in the peace talks, “but compromises cannot be one-sided.”

Clinton reiterated a theme he and his aides have been discussing for months: the U.S. desire to be a “full partner” in the peace talks, which would amount to an enhanced role for the Americans.

But administration officials have stressed that they would only play that role if the parties involved in the talks were serious in their negotiations.

“We focus today on our common objective of turning 1993 into a year of peacemaking in the Middle East,” Clinton said. “Prime Minister Rabin has made clear to me today that pursuing peace with security is his highest mission.”

“You are aware,” Rabin told Clinton at their joint news conference, “that no one wants peace more than us, and that there is no country more resolved to defend itself when necessary.”

American officials said that one goal of this initial meeting was to establish a good working relationship between the two leaders, and that goal seemed to have been achieved.

‘A FRIEND IN THE WHITE HOUSE’

Rabin said he would “tell everyone” in Israel “that Israel has a friend in the White House.”

And Clinton said that he and Rabin had “begun a dialogue intended to raise our relationship to a new level of strategic partnership — partners in the pursuit of peace, partners in the pursuit of security.”

But he said Americans and Israelis would need to pay more attention to such issues as missile defenses and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

“We just want to make sure that, beginning now, we give those matters the most careful attention at the appropriate level,” he said.

In addition, the two countries agreed Monday to establish a joint science and technology commission that would enhance cooperation and create technology-based jobs in both countries.

Clinton and Rabin discussed progress in the peace talks and the need to maintain momentum on all the negotiating tracks, a senior State Department official told reporters afterward.

But the two leaders apparently did not discuss the fate of some 400 Palestinian fundamentalists whom Israel deported to Lebanon in December, an issue the Palestinians say must be resolved to their satisfaction before they are willing to resume the peace talks with Israel.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Clinton told reporters, “the secretary of state and the prime minister reached an agreement on that. And I think that is the framework within which we are proceeding.”

The president was referring to a compromise solution that Christopher and Rabin worked out in January, in which Israel would allow 100 of the deportees to return to the administered territories immediately, and the rest by the end of the year.

The deal was welcomed by the U.N. Security Council but rejected by the Palestinians, who insisted on the immediate return of all the deportees.

Clinton made it clear that the ball is in the Palestinians’ court. “We hope very much that the Palestinians will come to the table,” he said.

Rabin said that Israel has offered the Palestinians “what no one offered them when the Arab states were in occupation” — “self-rule, run your own life by yourself, as an interim agreement for a transition period of not more than five years.”

“We are ready to enter negotiations with them about a permanent solution,” he added, referring to talks on the final status of the territories.

ACCEPTS ‘PRINCIPLE OF WITHDRAWAL’

American and Israeli officials have been voicing more optimism over the progress of the Israeli-Syrian negotiating track.

Israeli officials have been speaking about the possibility of eventually withdrawing from all of the Golan Heights, if Syria commits to a full-fledged peace, though Rabin has only spoken of a partial pullout.

“We made it clear that we accept the principle of withdrawal of the armed forces of Israel on the Golan Heights, to secure, recognized boundaries,” the prime minister said Monday, “but we’ll not enter negotiations on the dimension of the withdrawal without knowing what kind of peace Syria offers us.”

Rabin said Israel wants to know whether Syria is ready for a full-fledged peace, with open borders and full diplomatic relations, including the exchange of embassies.

“Before we know that,” he said, there is no point to discussing “how much we will withdraw.”

In addition to the peace talks, Clinton and Rabin discussed a range of issues during their meeting, including threats posed by Iran and Iraq, global terrorism and efforts to end the Arab boycott against countries doing business with Israel.

“I hope this boycott can end soon,” Clinton said at the news conference, pointing out that this would benefit both the U.S. and Israeli economies.

Clinton also stressed the U.S. commitment to maintaining Israel’s “qualitative edge” over any aggressors, and to continuing U.S. aid to Israel for the 1994 fiscal year at the current annual level of $3 billion.

But American officials have refused to specify what aid level the United States will request for Israel in succeeding years.

State Department officials have said that changing circumstances in the region, including the prospect of progress in the peace talks and improving economic conditions, could reduce the need for high levels of American aid to Israel and Egypt.

Rabin also met at the Pentagon on Monday with Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who was present as well during part of the White House meeting.

Among the issues discussed at the Pentagon was Israel’s offer to base a U.S. aircraft carrier in the port of Haifa. Aspin thanked Rabin for the offer but did not indicate whether Washington would accept it.