No international peacekeeping forces will be sent to keep the peace between Israel and the Palestinians if the Israelis are opposed to the idea, US President Bill Clinton said Tuesday, reported the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Speaking in a Chicago radio interview, Clinton said also that he was seeking ways to calm the violence in the Middle East.
AFP reported Monday that the United States signaled it would be willing to consider Palestinian appeals for an international force to patrol the West Bank and Gaza, backing off from an earlier categorical rejection of the idea.
The change, communicated subtly in public comments at the White House and State Department and enunciated more clearly in private, comes as Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak prepare to visit Washington for separate talks with Clinton.
"There is a slight shift from Friday," a senior State Department official told AFP, referring to the sharp US opposition to such a force registered last week during a visit here by senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Erekat had been pushing the idea ahead of Arafat's trip to Washington this Thursday.
"We'll hear them out," the official said of the Palestinian request, AFP said.
He stressed, however, that the United States would not support anything that Israel -- which is now vehemently opposed to the entire concept -- and Washington did not believe the United Nations should be involved in.
"I can't speculate about what might be acceptable, but we're not looking for a UN resolution or anything within the UN system," the official said. "We're prepared to look at something different."
The Palestinians have been pushing hard for a UN force of 2,000 military observers, and the Security Council is expected to take up a draft proposal for one on Wednesday, said the agency - (Several Sources)
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