Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak thinks there is little chance of reviving peace talks with the Palestinians because their leader Yasser Arafat is not yielding on key questions, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported Friday.
The mass circulation paper quoted Barak as saying at a private meeting late Thursday that a peace deal before US President Bill Clinton steps down on January 20 was unlikely.
The paper said he would suggest to Washington putting the whole peace process on hold until after president-elect George W. Bush takes over and the Israeli prime ministerial elections on February 6.
Barak's opinion was backed Friday by his chief of staff Gilad Sher, who is in Washington to be briefed by US officials on Arafat's reservations to a peace plan put forward by Clinton.
"The chances of a breakthrough or even of progress by January 20 are slim,” Sher said in a telephone interview with Israeli public radio.
Barak, who is hoping to salvage a deal to avoid a massive defeat by right-winger Ariel Sharon in the elections, said there was little basis for discussion, Yediot reported.
He singled out the main issues of the right of return of Palestinian refugees to property they fled on the creation of Israel in 1958, and Palestinian sovereignty over the al-Aqsa mosque compound on Temple Mount in east Jerusalem.
The site is revered by both Muslims and Jews and Clinton has proposed a form of shared sovereignty, plus Palestinian rule over Arab areas of east Jerusalem, up to 95 percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.
But the Palestinians would have to waive the right of return of the refugees, which Israel has already rejected as a threat to its predominantly Jewish character.
Barak has also said he would never sign away sovereignty over the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site-- JERUSALEM (AFP) -
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
