In a sign that the United States is seeking to prod the Middle East peace process from its sluggish pace, the State Department has announced that a team of top U.S. diplomats will be traveling to the region next week.
In addition, the American team working on the peace talks presented the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators this week with a draft of a proposal for a joint Israeli-Palestinian statement.
The long-awaited American draft, presented Wednesday, was designed to help the two sides bridge some rather large gaps, including the issue of Jerusalem’s status, that were hindering progress in the 10th round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The round of talks, in which Israel was also negotiating separately with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, was scheduled to conclude Thursday.
State Department spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters Wednesday that the American proposal was not an American document, per se. Rather, he characterized the proposal as “a way that we’re helping the parties work on their differences.”
Hanan Ashrawi, the spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation, also played down the significance of the American paper. “I wouldn’t make too much of it,” she said at a news conference Wednesday.
She called the document an “informal draft,” and said that her delegation would take it to Tunis, where they would discuss it with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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Neither Ashrawi nor Elyakim Rubinstein, head of the Israeli team negotiating with the Palestinians, would comment on the specifics of the American paper.
At the end of the last round of talks, the Americans attempted to get the two sides to agree on a paper, but the Palestinians complained that the draft reflected the Israeli point of view.
The State Department has been suggesting recently that the delegations negotiating in Washington lack the authority to move beyond their already-stated positions.
Next week’s trip by administration officials to the region is seen as a method of pushing the process up to a higher level of authority. The U.S. delegation will be led by Dennis Ross, the administration’s coordinator of the peace talks.
There is talk that Secretary of State Warren Christopher may make a trip to the Middle East following the Ross expedition.
Accompanying Ross will be State Department officials Dan Kurtzer and Aaron Miller, and Martin Indyk, a National Security Council specialist on the Middle East.
Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian, who has been tapped to become U.S. ambassador to Israel next year, could also join the trip in progress, after visiting Moscow, where he will consult with the Russian co-sponsors of the peace process.
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