It would take a "miracle" for Israelis and Palestinians to sign a lasting peace agreement before deal-broker US President Bill Clinton leaves office, Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said Wednesday.
Only a "providential miracle ... can produce a full deal between us and the Palestinians in the remaining days" of the Clinton presidency, Ben Ami told reporters during a visit to Stockholm.
"It's a pity that precious days were lost. It took too long for Mr. Arafat to come forward and give what is a conditioned and rather qualified 'yes'," he added, referring to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's positive but conditional response to Clinton's peace initiative.
"Nevertheless, I'm not going to underestimate the meaning of the attitude that Chairman Arafat has shown today" in his meeting with the outgoing US president, Ben Ami said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's peace cabinet, which convened following the Arafat decision, announced it would send an envoy to Washington for talks on the deal, Israeli public television reported.
While Israel had accepted the Clinton peace plan late last month with reservations, Arafat had asked Washington to clarify certain parts of the deal, refusing until Wednesday to respond to the proposal.
"We will be ready to engage as we always were," Ben Ami said, once the violence that has wracked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last September begins to subside.
But he warned: "It's not possible to negotiate under fire."
Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli minister met Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson and Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in Stockholm to discuss the Middle East situation.
Sweden this month took over the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union -- STOCKHOLM (AFP)
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