Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to meet US President Bill Clinton November 12 in Washington in order to try to get the stalled peace process with the Palestinians back on track, a senior Israeli official told AFP Sunday.
"The prime minister is scheduled to leave Israel on Saturday night and to meet with the US president on Sunday," the official who is very close to the prime minister said.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is scheduled to meet Clinton on Thursday.
"We hope to get the peace talks back on track, we would like to start them from the point at which they broke off in Camp David," he added.
Israelis and Palestinians failed to hammer out a comprehensive peace agreement at Camp David, Maryland under Clinton's mediation in July -- the key stumbling block then was the question of the future of Jerusalem.
"What we are aiming for is an improved Camp David," the official said.
"We need to have more security guarantees; the Palestinians should hold their demonstrations in areas controlled by them fully and not in border areas with Israel," he said.
The official said that if the Palestinians demonstrate in areas which border with Israel and shoot or throw stones at the Israeli army, the Palestinians need to send their police force as a buffer between their rioters and the army.
He also said that Israel would like to ensure that the Tanzim Fateh movement is disarmed in accordance with signed peace accords and that the Hamas and Jihad prisoners that the Palestinians released from jail in the last few weeks will be re-arrested.
Under the Sharm el-Sheikh security understandings the Israeli and Palestinian security forces were supposed to hold meetings on a regular basis to ensure cooperation, but the Israeli official said it has been difficult to schedule meetings with the Palestinians.
"We are not meeting daily because there have been scheduling problems on their part."
The official was concerned about the erosion of trust in the last five and a half weeks of violence and said it would be difficult to restore that.
"The damage of the last weeks of violence is vast; both sides need to make extreme efforts to restore trust."
The official said Israel expected Clinton to put pressure on Arafat to put an end to the violence and incitement.
"It's hard to estimate what will be the outcome of the meetings, we can only hope that the violence will end and that we will return to the negotiating table." -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
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