By Munir K. Nasser
Chief Correspondent, Washington, DC
Albawaba.com
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright openly criticized Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for not controlling the violence and for urging the uprising to continue.
Speaking on a public television program in Washington, Albright said Arafat “has been saying some things that are very difficult to swallow in terms of kind of wanting to keep fighting, but I hope very much that he will exercise more control -- and he should and he can -- and that we can get back to a peace process.”
Albright’s criticism of Arafat comes a few day before separate visits by acting Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat to Washington this week. She urged both sides to stop the fighting and go back to the negotiating table. “I think it just depends if they want to see a future of stones and bullets and rocks and funerals, or whether we can somehow begin to look for a different vision. It's tough now. I'm not going to try to fool anybody. This is a very hard period,” she stressed.
Albright praised Israeli Prime Minister Barak for his efforts to restart the peace process. “I have listened to Prime Minister Barak, who went very far and was very bold at Camp David -- deep down he is always saying that he would like to figure out a way to go to a peace process,” she said.
On the Palestinian side, Albright said there are numbers of them who say they want to work it out. “I can't say that there is anything particularly hopeful going on at this moment except that they are talking to us, they are talking to others who want to help,” she noted. “The future for them is either -- for both the Palestinians and the Israelis -- is the kind of horrible pictures that we have seen for the last … three weeks, or of trying to work out a peace. And so we will work until the last day to try to help them,” she said.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday the talks with Ben-Ami and Erekat would be an opportunity to discuss steps to calm the violence, based on the cease-fire commitments Arafat and Israeli Barak made when they met President Clinton at Sharm Al-Sheikh last month.
Boucher said that discussions in Washington will be based on the Sharm El Sheikh agenda and explore ways to implementing agreements reached at that meeting. “It's an opportunity for us to discuss with them the current situation, explore ways that the parties can act to meet their commitments to Sharm Al-Sheikh, and to discuss all the items that were on that agenda, including steps to calm the violence, the fact-finding commission, and ways to look for a path back to the peace process,’ he stressed.
Boucher said both Barak and Arafat agreed at that time to take concrete steps to end the violence, ease restrictions on movement of people and goods, and take steps to disengage in terms of the security situation. “We think that's the right framework; those are the right steps; and it's really critical that both of the parties move to implement those commitments seriously and immediately,” he added – Albawaba.com
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