Palestinians boycotted the latest phase of Middle East peace talks Tuesday after the United States and Russia barred some of their negotiators from the conference.
Algeria and Yemen joined the boycott, marring an otherwise unprecedented gathering in Moscow that brought Arabs and Israelis together alongside a host of Western and Far Eastern countries seeking to promote the peace process.For Israel, the Moscow conference represented the beginning of a dream come true. Throughout its existence, Israelis have believed real peace would come not through diplomacy but through gradual rapprochement on the ground - through water-sharing, exchange of farming know-how and all the other mundane matters now on the negotiating table.
The Palestinians, attempting to defy restrictions imposed at Israel's insistence, brought a delegation made up of people from the occupied territories, Jerusalem and other countries.
The Palestinians are walking a tightrope at the conference, torn between the tangible benefits they could lose by staying away, and the risk of alienating their supporters at home and abroad by appearing once again to bow to the Israeli line.
Israel says it will only negotiate according to "the Madrid formula" - the procedure established for the Madrid peace conference whereby only Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip can take part.
That ruled out five of the eight Palestinian delegates in Moscow.
"No, we are not going to the conference," Palestinian delegation leader Faisal Husseini told The Associated Press at his hotel after the talks began.
"We are ready to go as soon as they accept our delegation. . . . At the moment that the precondition on our delegation is removed, we will attend the conference, but not before then," he said.
Israel says acceptance of Palestinians from Jerusalem and the diaspora would imply recognition of their claim to the city's Arab sector and the homes they lost when Israel became a state. Israel seized east Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the 1967 Middle East war.
Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said delegations from Yemen and Algeria also did not take part in the morning session out of "solidarity" with the Palestinians.
U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III had earlier endorsed the Israeli stand, but he appeared to offer the Palestinians a carrot by announcing to the conference that one of its working groups would deal with refugees.