President Clinton's Mideast envoy wrapped up a series of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders early Monday without getting the two sides to agree to resume peace talks.
The envoy, Dennis Ross, left later Monday for a brief visit to Jordan, but he was to return to Israel and the Palestinian areas tonight and remain in the region for several more days, said Edward Abington, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.Ross' agenda remained uncertain, Abington told The Associated Press. "He has not made up his mind when he will be leaving, but the process is very slow," Abington said.
The diplomat said Ross was trying to arrange a three-way meeting between U.S. officials and Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators. "The ground rules would be that both parties could put anything on the table," Abington said.
Contacts between Israel and the Palestinians broke off in mid-March over Israel's decision to begin construction of a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the sector the Palestinians claim as a future capital.
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war and annexed it into its capital.
Israel demands that the Palestinians resume security cooperation and do more to prevent terror attacks before negotiations can resume. The Palestinians say they will not return to the table until Israel stops the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, a senior Israeli official said Netanyahu intends to keep about 60 percent of the West Bank in a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The Palestinians rejected the proposal outright. They have said repeatedly they expect to gain control over at least 90 percent of the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.
"There is no Palestinian who will accept Israel's keeping 60 percent of the West Bank," said Anis el-Qaq, deputy Palestinian planning minister.
"If Israel does not want to withdraw from the areas it conquered in 1967, and if the peace talks do not lead to establishment of a Palestinian state, then there is no need for peacemaking," he told The Associated Press.