WASHINGTON -- Visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, trying to win U.S. support for a Palestinian state, is under pressure from Congress and the Clinton administration to postpone a unilateral declaration of statehood on May 4.
Palestinian officials say they are looking to the United States for help in answering the many legal questions raised by the May 4 date. Under the Oslo peace accords with Israel, that is when statehood could be declared. May 4 also is when a five-year interim agreement expires and comes about two weeks before Israeli elections.Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, following a 90-minute meeting with Arafat Monday night, said concerns over the date were to be broached Tuesday during the Palestinian leader's meetings with President Clinton and other U.S. officials.
"These are among the subjects we are going to be talking about," Albright said.
Arafat also was meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Tuesday.
Palestinian officials expressed concern that if the date was pushed back, as some leaders have advised, it could lead to open-ended negotiations.
"We are just simply asking to fill the vacuum, the political and legal vacuum," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. "There are many legal questions related to May 4 that no one is willing to answer."
Erekat, at an appearance Monday at the Brookings Institution, said the date provided a "light at the end of the tunnel" and a reassurance to the Palestinian people that statehood was an eventual goal. But if the date is cast aside, "do we lose this time ceiling?"
The Clinton administration has said it opposes a unilateral declaration of statehood and also any unilateral actions by either side that could impede the peace process. Congress took a tougher stance last week when the House and Senate passed resolutions saying a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state would be unacceptable.
Arafat is expected, in his meetings with Clinton, to pledge to postpone any declaration if he is assured the United States will work to get the stalled peace process moving again.